By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
Determined to ensure that eligible voters exercise their civic rights, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is set to begin distribution of Permanent Cards (PVCs) in Edo state ahead of the September 21 governorship election in the South South state.
INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu stated this in his opening remarks at a meeting with States’ Resident Commissioners (RECs) held at the headquarters in Abuja on Monday.
Yakubu said the cards will be available for collection in all the 192 Wards of Edo State from 9am to 5pm daily, including the weekend during the scheduled period (Thursday -Monday).
He also said the collection will continue in INEC’s 18 Local Government offices across the state from next week Wednesday, August 28 to Sunday, September 8, 2024 from 9am to 5pm inclusive of weekends.
The INEC boss said detailed information on the dates and location of the 210 centres (192 Wards and 18 LGA offices) has been uploaded to INEC’s website and social media platforms for public information.
He said the Commission has developed a register containing, among other information, the names and photographs of the 184,438 voters to ease the collection of their PVCs and has also uploaded to its website (https://inecnigeria.org/?page_id=13804) to facilitate easy identification and collection of the cards.
Said he: “It is important to emphasise that the Commission’s policy that PVCs must be personally collected by registered voters has not changed. The cards will not be distributed or collected by proxy so that they do not end up in the wrong hands.
“We urge voters who took their time to register during the CVR to also take time to collect their PVCs in person and, most importantly, to come out on Election Day and vote for the party of their choice.
“Still as part of our preparations for the Edo State Governorship election, the softcopy of the final and comprehensive register of voters will be presented to each political party fielding candidates in the election tomorrow Tuesday 20th August 2024 in our State office in Benin City. This is in fulfillment of item 10 of the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election”.
Speaking further Yakubu stressed that: “Following the conclusion of the last Continuous Voters Registration CVR) in Edo and Ondo States, the Commission published the figures of new registrants for the two States following the clean-up of the register. For Edo State, 119,206 new voters were registered. In addition, 8,847 voters transferred their registration from other States of the Federation to Edo State while 46,171 voters transferred their registration within the State i.e. from one part of the State to another.
“As provided by law, the Commission has updated the records of 4,808 voters that applied for correction of names, addresses or dates of birth from previous registrations and also replaced 5,406 lost or damaged PVCs. Put together, 184,438 voters of various categories were served by the Commission during the last CVR in Edo State,” he stated.
According to him, INEC was working on the schedule for the collection of PVCs in Ondo State but its attention is focused on the Edo state at the moment because the election is holding next month. READ ALSO:
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“I want to assure the electorate in Ondo State that action is being taken in respect of the availability of their PVCs for the governorship election holding in November this year. Very soon, the Commission will make available detailed arrangement for the collection of PVCs for all categories of voters from the recent CVR in the State,” Yakubu added.
