Kogi governor receives temporary voter transfer card in Okene

Kogi State Governor Yahaya may have finally surmounted the challenge of his double registration scandal, as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s registration centre in Okene yesterday issued him a Temporary Voters Card for his transferred Permanent Voter Card (PVC).

It was gathered that the Administrator of Okene Local Council, Abdulrazaq Muhammad, received Bello as he arrived Okene to pick his Temporary Voters Card (TVC) at INEC office.

The governor’s visit to Okene INEC office may be in furtherance of his determination to be rightly registered and eligible to vote in Kogi State come 2019.

However, efforts to confirm from INEC as to the turn out of event was not successful as its Head of Voter Education and Publicity in Lokoja, Muhammed Biambo Bagudu was still struggling to reach out to the electoral officer in Okene.

The commission had earlier accused Bello of double registration for the second time at Government House in Lokoja.

It said his first registration was on January 30, 2011, in Wuse Zone 4, Abuja, while also accusing of registering outside lNEC’s designated centres, both of which it pointed out, were illegal.

After investigation the matter, INEC confirmed that Bello had indeed engaged in double registration during the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise in the state, thereby violating the electoral Act.

The commission’s members of staff involved in the scandal were also dismissed, as INEC indicated that it would have prosecuted the governor but for the immunity covering him.

Director General on Media and Publicity to the governor, Kingsley Fanwo confirmed that Bello picked the temporary transferred card at INEC Office in Okene.

He said the governor had been on the issue of the transfer for a long time and that he was excited that INEC has finally done it.