No fewer than 6.7 million Nigerians have yet to collect their permanent voter cards less than eigth weeks to the general elections.
Data obtained from the state offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission on Tuesday revealed that 6.7 m PVCs were locked up in INEC safes across 17 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The INEC had announced that the collection window for PVCs will commence December 12,2022 and end on January 22.
The INEC National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, disclosed in a statement that with effect from January 6 -15,2023 the collection of the PVCs will be devolved to the ward level after which collection would be moved to the local government areas.
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The PUNCH reports that past elections were marred by voters’ apathy.
During the 2019 general elections, the INEC said it had about 82.3m registered voters, however only 28.6m voted in the polls which resulted in the re-election of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) who polled 15m to defeat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar, who scored 11.2m votes.
During the Lagos governorship elections, less than 2m voted in the poll which was won by Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the APC. He garnered 739,445 votes to defeat Jimi Agbaje of the PDP who got 206,141 votes.
Data from the Lagos state INEC office revealed that as of December 29, a total of 1,693,963 PVCs remained uncollected. This was disclosed in a document tagged ‘INEC Lagos PVCs Reports.’
It stated, “Old PVCs received from headquarters – 6,570,291; old PVCs collected up till December 29, 2022 – 5,653,330. Total uncollected old PVCs – 916,961; New PVCs received from headquarters – 940,200; New PVCs collected as at December 29, 2022 – 163,198.
“Total uncollected New PVCs –777,022; Overall total PVCs received from headquarters- 7,510,491; Overall PVCs collected as at December 29, 2022 -5,816,528; Overall PVCs uncollected 1,693,963.’’
The INEC Director of Voter Education, Lagos State, Mrs Adenike Tadeshe, told The PUNCH that about 14,000 people collect their voter cards daily, noting that the commission would soon take the PVCs distribution to the wards.
She said, “I will not say we have a huge number of uncollected PVCs. Looking at the figures, as of December 29, 2022 we have given out 5,816,528 PVCs, so we are now left with 1,693,963 and we want to put in record that on a daily basis in Lagos State, we give out about 14,000 PVCs so the number will keep reducing.
‘’Now, by January 15 and 16, we will be taking the cards to all the 245 wards in Lagos State and from there to the local government areas, so this will bring the cards closer to the people for collection.”
Findings indicate that the FCT has 460,643 uncollected PVCs as of December 24.
A document obtained from INEC revealed that the Abuja Municipal Area Council had the highest number of uncollected PVCs in the FCT.
In Edo state, 661,783 voter cards have not been collected as of December 29 while
Ondo and Ekiti states had 300,000 and 205,127 cards, respectively, as of December 15.
In Osun State, 437,454 PVCs have not been collected by eligible voters as of November and in Plateau, 49,000 voter cards are still with the state INEC office.
No fewer than 231, 900 voters have yet to pick their cards in Gombe state as of December 20. Similarly, 132,623 PVCs remained uncollected in Anambra as of December 8.
Data released from Niger state as at November 27,2022 revealed that 150,988 PVCs have not been uncollected while the Adamawa state INEC office revealed that it had over 200,000 PVCs lying idle as at November 18, 2022.
Other states with a huge catalogue of voter cards include Oyo, 700,000; Kwara, 120,602; Borno, 80,117; Ogun, 400,000 and Edo, 661,783, Kogi, 160,966 and Imo, 300,000.
The Rivers State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Usolor Mark, declined to disclose the number of outstanding cards, but said the commission was engaging with women, youths, people living with disabilities and the aged people in the communities on PVCs collection.
Commenting on the apathy to the PVCs collection, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ibrahim Abdullahi, described it as a dangerous precedent, which he said smacked of mischief by the All Progressives Congress regime.
He said, “It is a confirmation that we are tilting towards a dangerous precedent. The fact that less than six weeks to the election; over 7m PVCs have not been collected leaves much to be desired.
‘’It is the responsibility of the government to enlighten the people and I think they haven’t done enough to encourage people to collect their PVCs, but in some ways, I smell mischief. They (government) can as well make use of these voter cards or use them to cover their tracks.’’
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said the party had been encouraging Nigerians to go for their voter cards.
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, noted that the party expected registered voters to go back to the collection centres to pick up their PVCs.
He expressed concern over the huge unclaimed voter cards.
Morka said, “I understand that people are very busy; we hope as a party that those Nigerians who have taken time to register will realise that of all the things they have to do, this is one of the most important duties: to go out to vote and select those who govern them. The country belongs to every Nigerian and that duty is the one that we hope that they exercise and take seriously.”
The APC spokesman said the ruling party has been mobilizing people to collect their PVCs irrespective of the party they would vote for.
“They need to go out there because without it they can’t even vote; that will mean that they are disenfranchising themselves,’’ he added.
Morka, however, asserted that the credibility of the elections cannot be undermined by the number of voters who didn’t pick their PVCs as the number is lower than those who had collected theirs.
Source: Punch
