Chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) in Ijebu North Local Government, Prince Dele Ajayi, has alleged that the underage voting in the Kano Local Government election was an indication of what might likely happen in some parts of the country in the 2019 general elections.
Ajayi, who said this while speaking with journalists in Ijebu Ode on Tuesday, posited that the rulling All Progressives Congress (APC), could be said to have perfected plans to massively rig the 2019 elections, saying, “the underage voters registration and voting in the North is just one of their strategies.”
He described voter registration as a critical aspect of elections. He urged Ogun State and Nigerian voters to get their Permanent Voters Cards (PCV) and vote out the failed ruling party.
On Monday, the party’s National Chairman, Yabagi Sani, condemned the incident on AIT Kakaki, saying, “Kano is an All Progressive Congress (APC) state, and the party has not done anything to condemn the underage voting.”
The former Vice Chairman of Ijebu North Local Government also accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the ruling party of being reluctant to take decisive steps on the issue of underage voters while questioning the independence of the Commission and the reliability of the voters’ register.
His words: “The excuse that underage voters were registered because of threats to the lives of registration officers is untenable. And if this is true, then how independent is INEC, and how reliable is the voter register? INEC should not have kept silent on this anti-democratic matter before now if the Commission is truly committed to ensuring the survival of democracy in Nigeria.”
Recall that last weekend, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) vowed that the alleged incident of underage voting during the recent local government elections in Kano State would be fully investigated.
He then commended the moves by the National Assembly to reorder the 2019 general election’s sequence as contained in the recent amendment to the Electoral Act.
Commenting on the economic situation in Nigeria, the ADP chieftain said the performances of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration lacked the intellectual capacity to tackle the nation’s economy, which, according to him, led to the collapse of several companies and loss of jobs in Nigeria’s, and the unarguable sufferings of the masses.
Quoting the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 2017 unemployment reports, Ajayi said, “4.07 million Nigerians became unemployed between January and September 2017. This was against Buhari’s promise in a campaign rally in Kano and other places, whereby he promised to create three million jobs yearly (totalling 12 million in his first term) to solve the problem of unemployment, and in addition, his then running mate, Prof Yemi Osibanjo, at a campaign rally in Akure, pledging 20,000 jobs yearly, totalling 720,000.”
On the chances of ADP in the 2019 elections in Ogun State and Nigeria at large, Ajayi said, “ADP has come to stay, and to fix the crookedness in the Nigerian economy and policies and give the Nigerian people a credible alternative they have been yearning for, a third force that is capable of turning the country around for good.”
Ajayi, while describing ADP as a credible party for Nigerians to embrace and be served, said the party’s policy is to better utilise the resources of Nigeria for the good of the country and her good people.
“Our party, since its registration with the INEC in June 2017, has continued to receive massive membership. This indicates that Nigerians are tired and can no longer continue with the shenanigan ways of doing politics currently practised by both the APC and PDP,” Ajayi said.
