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Five days to the end of the voter registration, an Ibadan based
lawyer, Tade Ipadeola has filed a suit against the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) over its failure to deploy the registration
materials to his community, Akinmoorin town, in Oyo State.

The Motion Ex-parte (which is to be held quickly) is to compel
the electoral agency through a court order to deploy the registration materials
and its officials to the community forthwith. Mr Ipadeola also prayed the court
for an order to grant his community the exact amount of time given to all other
Nigerians for the exercise, hence two weeks which will run way beyond the
January 29th deadline.

Also joined in the suit filed at the Federal High Court in
Ibadan are INEC’s chairperson; Attahiru Jega and the resident electoral
commissioner in Oyo State.

Speaking to NEXT on Monday, the plaintiff stated that “since
the commencement of the voter registration exercise on the 15th of January
2011, the electoral commission has failed to deploy its officials and materials
to the town for the voters’ registration process.” He noted that “Akinmoorin is
a town of more than two thousand adults……with the nearest towns to
Akinmoorin being approximately nine kilometres away. Therefore, due to
restrictions on vehicular movement, it would be impractical to expect indigenes
of Akinmoorin to register and vote in those distant locations.”

The ongoing voter registration has been plagued with a lot of
challenges since it commenced over a week ago across the country and there have
been diverse calls for the process to be further extended. The President,
Goodluck Jonathan and the INEC boss both gave signals last week of the
possibility of such an extension if the need arises.

The lawyer claimed that all eligible adults irrespective of political
affiliation in his community will be ‘effectively disenfranchised’ if the voter
registration exercise is not effected in the town, adding that over 700
communities in the country are currently devoid of the machines and the
electoral officials. INEC is expected to face more of such legal actions he
added as the voter registration exercise is scheduled to be concluded on the
29th of January.