BENUE: 36,000 IDPs Give INEC 21 Days To Site Voter Registration Centres At Camps

Internally Displaced Persons in Benue State have petitioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seeking immediate installation of voter registration centres at IDPs camps in the state.

The petition dated September 24 was filed on behalf of the IDPs by Surveyor John Tondo, a former Commissioner for Lands and Survey in the state.

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The IDPs who hail from Uvir, Mbadwem, Mbabai, Mbayer-Yandev, Mbawa, and Nyiev Council Wards of Guma Local Government Area, were said to have been sacked from their communities by marauding.

In the petition they sent to the chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the IDPs alleged disenfranchisement of their members who are of voting age but who are unable to participate in electoral processes because they are not registered to vote.

They asked INEC to make special arrangements to accommodate them in the on-going continuous voters’ registration exercise within the next 21 days, failure of which they said would attract legal action against the electoral body.

“We believe this is the only way to guarantee that the internally displaced persons are given the opportunity of exercising their franchise in the forthcoming elections so that they can freely choose their political representatives,” Tondo said in the petition titled “Re: Continued disenfranchisement of internally displaced persons from Guma local government area of Benue State.”

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Tondo said, “if no special arrangements are put in place by INEC within 21 days, we shall be constrained to have recourse to the judicial system and take legal steps to ensure that the Commission is compelled to register and include in the voters’ register every Nigerian citizen from the aforementioned Council Wards in the IDP Camps in Benue State.”

Part of Tondo’s petition reads:

“I have the mandate of the aforesaid internally displaced persons and my people in general to bring to your immediate attention for necessary action, the fact that the IDP Camps in Benue Sate and their inhabitants are being completely shut out of our country’s political process because they are not part of the on-going continuous voters’ registration exercise.

“As you are well aware, voting and being voted for are at the heart of democratic system of government. The rights to vote and to be voted for also constitute inalienable human rights recognized by the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights. It is in furtherance of these rights that the extant Electoral Act provides for continuous voters’ registration and constant updating of the Voters’ Register by INEC.

“As you are also aware, many Nigerian citizens of resident in Benue Sate origin were forced into various IDP Camps within the State because of frequent bloody internal conflicts which occasioned the prevailing climate of insecurity in the State.

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“You would agree with me that those persons unfortunately displaced from their homes are still entitled to vote and be voted for, notwithstanding their current residential status. It is INEC that bears the constitutional and statutory responsibilities of ensuring that Nigerians of voting age, including the internally displaced persons, are registered as voters and are not disenfranchised through discriminatory implementation of INEC policies.

“It is common knowledge that in the run up to the 2019 General Elections, eligible voters in the IDP Camps in the State were not afforded the opportunity to participate in the continuous voters’ registration, and thus were unable to exercise their franchise during the Elections.

“Now, the INEC is conducting another voters’ registration for purposes of the 2023 General Elections, and once again persons eligible for registration as voters but who currently reside in the IDP Camps are being excluded from the process as no special arrangement whatsoever have been made to ensure their registration as voters and the inclusion of their names in the updated Voters’ Register.

“Facilities to enable on-line registration are non-existent in the IDP Camps at the moment. Even if such facilities were to be made available in the IDP Camps, it is a known fact that the level of illiteracy, including computer – illiteracy, is very high in Nigeria. It could be safely estimated that 75% to 80% of those in the IDP Camps in Benue State are illiterates who would find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to manipulate smart phones or computers in order to fill on-line soft-copies of the requisite forms to initiate or conclude their voters’ registration process.”

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