By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
The devolution of Permanent Voters Card (PVC) collection to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Registration Areas/Wards across Nigeria Which commenced last Friday has not reduced the difficulties associated with collection of the most important election pass for eligible Nigerians to use to vote on election days.
Prompt News can confirm that most Nigerians who registered to vote in the 2023 general election are not finding it easy to collect their PVCs at the designated collection centres across the country especially in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
A visit to some of the Registration Areas in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) on Monday revealed huge crowd gathered at designated collection centres but the process was either slow or the INEC ad hoc staff falling to arrive on time.
For example, at LEA Primary School, Kabusa near Galadimawa under AMAC, crowd started to form at the Collection Center 03 with 148 Polling Units on election days as early as 7:30 am on Monday and by 10:20 am when the INEC ad hoc staff arrived to attend to the public, many were already stressed and agitated.
On arrival at the center, the INEC officials asked the crowd to put down their names according to how they came and wait for the roll call and in the process, many people became agitated and began to crowd the point of collection.
Prompt News reports that a family member of our reporter who went to collect her PVC at the LEA Primary School, Kabusa by 9:15 on Monday has not returned home as at the time of this report as she said the crowd at the center is unprecedented.
The situation was the same at other Collection Centers visited by our reporter like Government Secondary School Garki, Area 10 and Model Primary School, Lagos Street, Garki Village as well as Senior Secondary School, Wuse Zone 3.
INEC had on Friday, January 6 commenced distributed of PVCs at 8,809 Registration Areas/Wards across Nigeria, saying that the devolution of PVC collection to the RAC/Wards level across Nigeria will reduce the difficulties being encountered by Nigerians in the process of collecting their PVCs.
Meanwhile, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Barrister Festus Okoye, had earlier said that the collection of PVCs at Wards level would end on January 15.
Said he: “the Commission resolved to devolve PVC collection to the 8,809 Registration Areas/Wards from Friday 6th to Sunday 15th January 2023. After the January 15, 2023, the exercise will revert to the Local Government Offices of the Commission until January 22, 2023”.
The Commissioner also said in making the cards available for collection, the Commission is also working to ensure that the process is simple and hitch-free for Nigerians.
