The shift in election dates has changed the strategies and objects of campaign among politicians in Ondo, Special Correspondent, JULIUS ALABI, writes from Akure.
With the shift in the dates for election, the two major political parties in Ondo State, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC), have changed their strategies in campaign across the 18 local governments in the state. The engagement is now house-to-house, group-to-group and individual-to-individual, to ensure that supporters and anticipated voters are with their cards.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has also, remarkably, extended the period for collection of the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) to March 8. However, investigations by TheNiche indicated that by last week, many voters’ cards were yet to be collected in all the 18 local government areas of the state. What more, many of the electorate appeared not ready for the collection of the cards. Consequently, candidates of the two parties currently devote their time and energy to educate the electorate on the importance of the cards and why they should go and collect their own.
Some of the supporters have complained of short timeframe, low public enlightenment on the process and inconsistency in distribution guidelines as well as non-compliance by INEC officials. They thus advised INEC to devise other methods for easy collection of the cards.
What seems to have compounded the situation is the allegation that chieftains of both parties are buying voters card for N10,000, while some are collecting from relatives promising them empowerment. The ugly trend, our reporter gathered, is more pronounced in rural areas where the affected politicians fear that their parties are not popular.
However, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Olusegun Agbaje, while speaking on the issue, noted that over 70.5 per cent of the PVCs have been collected, adding that about 25.5 per cent of the voters were yet to collect theirs.
The percentage, which, according to him, represented about 440,000, belonged to those who are either dead or not willing to collect the cards. The rest, he added, could be those who may have travelled out of the country or relocated to other states.
He stressed that over 4,000 card-readers have been received in the state, adding that the commission would make use of the card-readers to minimise electoral fraud.
“Those who will man the machines had been trained last week on how to use them effectively. But it is sad that some people are calling for the rejection of the card-readers.
“Also, those uncollected cards are kept in a safe place. They are in secure custody. Nothing will tamper with them as they are well secure,” he explained.
The PCV collection controversy is, however, not affecting the parties in their campaigns. Last week, for instance, even the physically-challenged in the state trooped into the popular Oba Adesida Road in Akure, the state capital, to declare their support for the APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and his party.
The march was led by a renowned lawyer and human rights activist, Dr. Tunji Abayomi, who, while addressing reporters later, stressed the need for equal treatment of the physically-challenged and other citizens in the country.
He lamented the neglect of the physically-challenged in the country, urging APC to make it a point of duty to help and involve them in its administration if voted into power in the general elections.
In similar vein, PDP supporters in the state are going round the streets of the state capital, often employing the services of trucks so as to cover long distance, campaigning for their candidates particularly President Goodluck Jonathan. In their campaign, they also encourage the electorate to collect their voters’ cards in their respective wards to be able to vote on the election day.
Speaking on the issue of candidates in the state, the INEC REC noted that all parties in the state had fielded their candidates for the election.
He said: “I can tell you that there is no party without candidate in Ondo State. They all have their candidates. No party is left out.
“People are to go to their wards collections centres or registration area to pick up their PVCs, which has commenced already from 9am to 5pm from Monday to Sunday. The commission is making sure that every registered voter who has not yet collected his or her PVC will do that. But I can assure you that the commission has done well in making sure that every registered voter gets his or her PVC, although many are yet to be collected.”
