PVC collection: INEC accuses Utomi of invading its Lagos office

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has accused Pat Utomi, a chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), of “invading” its office in the Oshodi-Isolo LGA of  Lagos.

Olusegun Agbaje, INEC’s resident electoral commissioner who made the allegation, spoke on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television.

Agbaje said Utomi, a professor of political economy, held an “illegal press conference” at the INEC office.

He said the action of the professor was not expected of a “senior Nigerian”, noting that the commission has reported the matter to the police and Department of State Services (DSS).

“Today in Lagos, Professor Pat Utomi did what we did not expect a senior Nigerian to do,” he said.

“He virtually invaded our office at Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area with some people that we didn’t know and they held an illegal press conference inside our conference room at Oshodi.

“Pat Utomi is a senior person, we didn’t expect that from him, that is an invasion. We informed the police accordingly and the DSS about this invasion.

“It is uncalled for, it is an act of intolerance on his part, what he did today could have led to violence if other people in the area had reacted that way.

“But I think the security agencies did their best to ensure that there was no violence in that area.

“Pat Utomi ought to be blamed for the type of invasion and aggression that he showed today.”

Agbaje said he would have addressed the grievances of the LP chieftain if he had approached him.

At the INEC office in Oshodi LGA, some Nigerians have raised concerns over the difficulty faced in accessing their permanent voter cards (PVCs).

Addressing the concerns, the INEC REC said a lot of people who migrated from the south-east zone of the country to Lagos did a fresh registration instead of doing a transfer of their polling units to the state.

“At Oshodi-Isolo LGA, we had a lot of people that migrated from the south-east and they wanted to vote in Lagos,” he said.

“During our registration last year, instead of doing a transfer from the area (south-east zone), what they did was to do a fresh registration.

“Those who did transfer got their PVCs but those who did fresh registration apparently it amounted to double registration and they could not get their PVCs.”