2015: Nasarawa APC raises alarm over illegal voter registration

By Umar Muhammad Puma, Abuja and Gambo Ahmed, Lafia.

The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nasarawa State has raised the alarm over the illegal continuous voters registration exercise in the state allegedly using some INEC staff and equipment.

State chairman of the APC, Mr. Philip Shekwo raised the alarm yesterday at a press conference in Lafia the state capital.

According to him, “The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nasarawa State has however discovered that some enemies of democracy are already at work in the state doing what they know best as well as causing confusion”.

Shekwo added that precisely on the 25th September, 2014 some unscrupulous persons were caught illegally registering prospective voters at Angwan Waya village of Gudi Station in Akwanga Local Government Area of the state where men of the Nigeria Police Force were intimated and they swiftly swung into action and apprehended one Mr. Daniel Wasika.

He continued “One Mr. Daniel Wasika who seems to be the leader was arrested by the police and items recovered from him include one laptop, one webcam and a finger print machine while others escaped in a Peugeot 504 salon car with registration number DY 54 ABC”.

Shekwo maintained that, it is necessary and expedient to address the entire citizens of the state as well as alert the democratic world of unwholesome acts by some unscrupulous people who are bent on derailing our nascent democracy that is being nurtured to maturity.

Mr. Philip Shekwo also called on the security agencies in the state to properly investigate the matter thoroughly to uncover those behind these criminals, alleging that it was during the imbroglio that Philip Aruwa Gyunka, a member representing Akwanga South Constituency in the State House of Assembly was sighted at the Divisional Police Station Akwanga where he took the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in his car and left to his house.

“We are watching with keen interest for the commission to take the necessary action by investigating possible internal collaborations by some of its unscrupulous staff”.

He further restate that INEC has an onerous task of ensuring that a credible poll is conducted for Nigeria in 2015; adding that INEC should not jeopardize this nor allow some miscreants plunge the commission into a position of disrepute.

Shekwo however appreciated the vigilant courage of the youth of Gudi who uncovered this criminal activity and took steps to ensure the arrest of the culprits; nothing that APC being a law abiding party therefore called on all people of the state to remain vigilant and report any person (s) involved in such illegal registration to security personnel.

Meanwhile, the Nasarawa State office of the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC ) has dissociated itself from the purported ongoing voters registration exercise in the state.

A statement signed by Fidelis Usar, INEC’s electoral political parties monitoring (EPPM) officer said that the commission is yet to commence the continuous voters registration (CVR) and issuance of permanent voters card in the state.

Also, the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Ismaila Numan, who confirmed the incident said the command having received complaints of illegal voter registration, swung into action and recovered finger print machine and some booklets.

“We received information that some people were engaged in the illegal registration and we were able to recover the items including print scanners,” he said.