Following recent demands by the Ministry of Youth Development and some other agencies for possession and submission of permanent voters’ cards, PVC, as a requirement for Deltans applying for skill acquisition empowerment programme, the State APC Campaign Organization, has accused the PDP-led government of Okowa of plotting to rig the forthcoming election in 2023.
The Director, Communications and Media Strategy of the APC Campaign Organisation, Ima Niboro, who made this assertion, specifically accused the Ministry of Youth Development for demanding for permanent voters’ cards from applicants applying for positions in the State Skill Acquisition programme.
In a statement he issued recently, Niboro described the demand for PVC from Deltans as fraudulent, calling on the police and other relevant agencies to arrest the situation.
According to him, by demanding for PVC from gullible Deltans before being considered for a state-sponsored skill acquisition programme amounts to a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise them, accusing the government of plotting to use the details on the cards to manipulate the outcome of the 2023 general election in the state.
“Our attention has been drawn to a fraudulent move by the Delta State Ministry of Youth Development through its Rural Youth Skill Acquisition Programme to obtain Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) from applicants.
“There is no correlation between an applicant seeking skill acquisition and his PVC, as this only suggests that the PDP government is hellbent on rigging the forthcoming elections in the state.
“Justification that the move is meant to collect the details of applicants falls flat on its face as there are other documents like National Identity card, Drivers Licence, International Passport that could equally serve the same purpose.
“Not even the TraderMoni loan scheme, N-Power, MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and other social intervention programmes (SIPs) of the Federal Government was PVC used as a condition precedent for applicants to access the schemes”, he said.
While advising Deltans to be wary of the antics and desperation of the outgoing Okowa/ PDP government, the former Presidential Spokesman, informed that giving out the details of their PVC to government agencies who, at the end of the day, may not even consider them for the position, amounts to submitting themselves for disenfranchisement.
“It bears repeating that PVC is the only surest means of electing credible leaders at all levels and citizens should not trade them to racketeers under any guise,” he added.
It would be recalled that in a similar skill acquisition empowerment interview organized by the Office of Job Creation across the state in July, possession and submission of PVC information, was a prerequisite.
