INEC laments political thuggery, unclaimed PVCs in Lagos

Says action demeans democracy

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday, lamented the high rate of political thuggery in Lagos State, urging political parties to shun harassment of opponents.

The commission, which lamented that no fewer than five people were killed in two local councils during the last primary election, urged political parties to shun do-or-die attitude to win election at all costs, saying that such attitudes will impede democratic practices in the country.

Lagos State Resident Electoral Commission, Olusegun Agbaje, who spoke during a stakeholders’ meeting with political parties and election officers, said that all hands must be on deck with political party leaders to make Lagos one of the most peaceful states during campaigns and elections in 2023.

Agbaje, who frowned on the low rate of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collection in Lagos State, said that it was worrisome that only 6,382 PVCs out of 34,242 received from the commission’s headquarters for the first and second quarters Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) had been collected by their owners, noting that 1,091,157 are still uncollected by their owners for the old PVCs.

He said: “The political class must change her “do-or-die” attitude to good conduct in politics by doing away with all election vices, including destroying the bill boards of opponents, using vulgar languages during campaigns and using thugs to harass political opponents.

“It is important to stress that the inability of the political parties to imbibe the culture of genuine internal party democracy is unhealthy for the electoral process. If we must achieve our collective goal of building a durable democratic culture, political parties must embrace the culture of sincere internal party democracy while also avoiding all forms of contraventions to the extant laws.”

He urged political party leaders to strive towards ensuring that their contributions are effective, positive and purposeful for the attainment of the Nation’s desired viable, sustainable and enduring democratic culture, adding:

“As the general election draws nearer, political parties should ensure that apart from providing platforms for the sponsorship of candidates during the election, they properly educate and mobilise the voters through the conduct of lectures, seminars, and other positive engagements in line with the Electoral Act 2022 and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).”