The call for the postponement of the February 14 presidential election and other others slated for February to has gained ally in the non-governmental organisations community.
A coalition of 100 non-governmental organisations under the aegis of Love Your Country Initiative on Friday joined the call on the Independent National Electoral Commission to shift the February 14 general election by 30 days.
According to the coalition, this will enable INEC address of the complaints over inadequate distribution of Permanent Voter Cards.
The initiative, through its Chairman and Life Patron, Eze Maxwell Kanu and Vice-chairman, Mr. Funmi Omosule, appealed to all political parties and relevant stakeholders to support the call on the electoral body to enable those who had yet to get their PVCs do so.
The coalition said in Abuja on Friday that the call for the poll shift became necessary because over 20 million Nigerians had yet to get their PVCs.
The National Secuirty Adviser had in London on Thursday called for the shifting of the election date within three months legitimate window up to April allowed by the constitution.
“It is a common knowledge that about 25 per cent of Nigerians have yet to collect their PVCs,” he said. “
This in itself will make the elections not credible as we want the result to be accepted by all Nigerians. We request that the election should be shifted till March.”
He said that about two states in the North and many people across the country have not collected their PVCs less than a month to the electoon.
“Our concern is that if INEC could only distribute 75 per cent of the PVCs in more than one year, certainly INEC will not be able to distribute the remaining 25 per cent in just three weeks,” Kanu said.
But INEC boss, Professor Attahiru Jega, at a forum in Abuja on Friday, gave impression that the postponement call has no chance to succeed.
Jega said that the INEC should not be blamed for people’s refusal to collect their PVCs and insisted that the election would go on as scheduled.
