Charly Boy, others storm INEC headquarters over poor registration exercise

OURMumuDonDo Movement led by ace musician, Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy, on Monday, stormed the National headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abuja, on a peaceful protest over the poor handling of voters’ registration exercise nationwide.

The movement also condemned the underage voting during the last Saturday Local Government elections in Kano State.

The movement said it was deeply and genuinely concerned that if necessary actions were not taken to remedy deficiencies plaguing the electoral process, it would be difficult to eradicate voter-apathy and disenfranchisement, and even more difficult to sustain the democracy.

Other speakers were Conveners of Concerned Nigerians, Deji Adeyanju; OurMumuDonDo, Raphael Adebayo; Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy, Ariyo Dare Atoye; as well as Campaign for Democracy; Bako Abdul Usman and MAD Connect, Moses Paul.

They were received by a senior police officer, Paul Odama and Assistant Director, Security Directorate of INEC, Muse Sekpe, who led their representatives into the premises to personally submit the protest letter.

While expressing the readiness of the movement to partner with INEC to galvanise the Continuous Voter’s Registration Exercise, Oputa said the group came to register its displeasure with the entire process.

He said if the commission failed to address the issues raised in their letter and reply within two weeks, the movement would begin its daily-sit-out at the front of INEC office.

Oputa said after series of meticulous observations of the electoral process and interface with voters across the nation, deems it to engage the commission on what the movement has discovered so far.

“While we commend INEC on some giant stride it has recorded since its formation, and space it is giving to dialogue this period on how to improve our electoral process, the movement wishes to engage the commission on the following challenges encumbering mass participation of the Nigerian people in the electoral process.

“The challenge of voters’ registration in different parts of the country, especially with regards to the unavailability of required registration centres in most of the states in Nigeria.

“The challenge of voters’ apathy and disenfranchisement as a result of the longtime practice of rigidity in the electoral process. The challenge of conspicuous deficiencies with regards to electronic voting, the compilation of results, and accurate documentation and reportage of the number of voters nationwide.

Adeyanju, while speaking, therefore, took a swipe at the just concluded Local Government election in Kano State where adolescent age participated actively during the election.