DOUBLE PVC REGISTRATION: INEC may be referring to my ghost –Gov Bello

Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello has said that nothing will come out of his alleged double Permanent Voters’ Card registration because he did not do it.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Solomon Soyebi, had in a statement last week Thursday said that Governor Bello contravened electoral law by registering as a voter for the second time on May 23 at the Government House, Lokoja.

According to Soyebi, Bello earlier registered as a voter on January 30, 2011, at Wuse Zone 4, Abuja.

The governor’s spokesperson, Kingsley Fanwo, had in an earlier response to the allegation claimed that the governor was left with no choice but to re-register again in Kogi because INEC had so far failed to transfer his voter’s card from Abuja, where he first registered, to Kogi.

But in a dramatic fashion, Bello, who spoke to State House correspondents shortly after joining Muslims to take part in the two-rakat Juma’at prayer at a mosque inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Friday, denied the allegation and claimed it was falsehood.

He said it could have been his ghost that committed the offence since he was outside the country as at the time the INEC commissioner made the claim.

He said, “I travelled on the 19th (May) to Dubai for a brief break and I saw the press release and I was taken aback that I did double registration on 23rd (May). Probably it is my ghost that has done the double registration.

Read also: Gov Bello broke the law, registered twice, but we can’t prosecute him, INEC laments

“I think INEC has earned itself a very high reputation and I think and I am very confident that the leadership of INEC will not allow some elements in the commission to drag its name through the mud. Surely that allegation was a falsehood. I did not do double registration of PVC.”

On Senator Dino Melaye and his All Progressives Congress members calling for his resignation, Bello described them as distractors and said he will not bother himself by their criticisms.

He said, “I don’t see anything coming out of that and I don’t think I have to waste my time in responding to whatever side distraction. Honestly speaking I am too focused to be distracted.

“Kogi State has suffered for over 25 years before I came on board and the good people of the state are really appreciative of the efforts we are putting forward to make sure that the state is well developed.

“So, any side distraction is not something I should pay attention to because the people are with me,” he said.

 

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