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Brown Chimezie
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Mekong River Asia, Thailand has said over 15 million Nigerians in the Diaspora were disenfranchised as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed to make provision for their registration abroad.
In a joint statement, Ezendigbo Ezeneche Uzochukwu Jerome, and President Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Ugwunso Abadom, called on INEC to promote the policy of allowing Nigerians to vote from where ever they are resident, as obtainable in developed democracies.
The statement urged INEC to propose amendment of the electoral bill to enable Nigerians in the Diaspora to register in the country’s missions abroad. They said if implemented, the trauma of traveling thousands of miles to cast vote will be eliminated.
They also frowned at INEC’s uneven conduct of the election which resulted in the discrepancies in the use of electronic data capturing machines in the north and south of the country respectively.
The statement said the anomaly created room for void votes, and disqualification of many voters in the south. “We are shocked that in cities like Lagos and Port Harcourt, out of over 5 million voters that registered, less than 1 million votes were recorded.” The statement further condemned the slow pace of announcement of the result which it claimed gave room for manipulation of election results.
While appealing to Nigerians not to take the law into their hands, they urged aggrieved parties to seek redress in the court. They want Nigerians to learn from Venezuela’s bitter experience following the post-election violence which is tearing the country apart.
