Kenneth Okonkwo, a spokesperson of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, claims Olusegun Agbaje, said Igbos in Lagos are being denied their permanent voter cards (PVCs) because they are immigrants.
Olusegun Agbaje is the resident electoral commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Lagos.
Okonkwo and a group known as Leaders After God’s Own Spirit Initiating A New State (LAGOSIANS) alleged that Agbaje was discriminating against Igbos in Lagos state, and supporters of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party.
“If Prof Mahmood Yakubu doesn’t sack Olusegun Agbaje, the INEC REC of Lagos State, now, then Nigerians must realise that Prof Mahmood has decided to rig the election of 2023 in favour of APC,” Okonkwo tweeted.
“How can one explain that Agbaje said the Igbos in Lagos are immigrants in their own country and was openly denied their PVCs in Lagos, Nigeria, their own country…”.
The Genesis
On Feb 2, 2023, the INEC REC of Lagos state was interviewed by Channels TV. During the interview, he spoke about the PVC collection hitches in Lagos state and explained why some people in Okota, Oshodi Local Government Area, could not get their PVCs.
His words have since been twisted and interpreted out of context to mean various things, including that he is in support of the All Progressives Congress.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party have called for his removal as the INEC REC in Lagos state.
Verification
CDD Election War Room checked Agbeje’s interview on Channels TV, and here is what we found:
During the interview, Agbaje was asked where he would say Lagos state has been having challenges in terms of the distribution of PVCs.
He answered by saying: “the challenge we have is that many people that ought to have done transfer last year did double registration and by the commission’s guideline, anybody with double registration cannot get another PVC, because it is assumed that he is already having one PVC (sic).
“The only area we have majority of people in that category is Oshodi particularly, at Okota in Oshodi LG Area. So and then we have told the people that they cannot have PVC because many of them from the southeastern part of the country, last year because of the insecurity in their area ought to have migrated to Lagos, but what they did was to go and do another registration which made their [case] to be double registration and anybody who does that could not get PVC,” he added.
He was later asked about the concerns that Pat Utomi, a chieftain of the Labour Party, raised when he allegedly invaded the INEC Lagos office if those fears have been addressed.
In his words, he reiterated that: “at Oshodi Isolo, we had a lot of people that migrated from the southeast, they wanted to vote in Lagos. During our registration last year, instead of doing transfer from the area, what they did was to do a fresh registration.
“Many of them did a fresh registration. Those who did transfer got their PVC but those who did fresh registration apparently; it amounted to double registration and they could not get PVC.”
Verdict
There was no point in the course of the interview where Olusegun Agbaje, INEC REC for Lagos state, referred to Igbos in Lagos as immigrants, neither did he say they were being denied PVCs because of their ethnicity. He said those being denied PVCs registered twice, which is against the law.
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