A legal practitioner, Mr Kayode Ajulo has demanded that some Nigerians be compensated with free fuel over the postponement of the general elections few hours to voting by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Igberetvnews reports.
Ajulo said this during a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Ilorin, Igberetvnews has learnt.
He said that the Federal Government through the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must compensate Nigerians for wasting resources and energy to travel to their various polling units to cast their votes.
“I traveled to Cardive in America few weeks ago and a certain road was closed without the knowledge of the citizenry, the government had to compensate them with five litres of fuel.’’
He said that the postponement was a technical disenfranchisement that only the presidency could reverse by providing palliative measures in form of free fuel to voters.
He described the news as an arbitrary predilection for unpleasant surprises, saying that INEC had made Feb. 16, into a national day of ‘April Fool’.
“INEC’s decision to suspend at the eleventh hour, the Presidential and National Assembly elections long billed for Saturday, Feb. 16, has thrown a crooked wrench in the plans and schedule of several million of voters all over the country.”
Ajulo said that the for some people, election meant taking trips away from their states of residence to their states of origin where they registered to participate in the process.
According to him, schedules are disrupted, families uprooted and finances invested in the bid to exercise franchise and execute the civic duty as required by the registered citizenry in the country.
He said that the dilemma for many families and individuals at the moment would be to taking a decision between staying in their locations or going back to their respective places of abode.
Ajulo urged INEC to keep its words, adding that a second postponement could have dire implications for it and remove public faith and trust in the commission.
