The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has raised an alarm over the high number of uncollected Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, by Nigerians nationwide, putting the figure at about 20 million, just ahead of the 2023 general elections,
The INEC National Commissioner of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Plateau States, Mohammed Haruna, disclosed this on Tuesday, at the launch of a Campaign to drive the collection of PVCs and increase participation in the ongoing continuous voter registration exercise.
He stated that statistics by INEC in 2019, showed that over 84 million PVCs were printed, and out of the figure, over 72 million were collected, while over 11 million voters cards were left uncollected.
Giving a breakdown of the figure, the South-West had the highest number of uncollected PVCs, with over 3.4 million, followed by the North-West, with over 1.9 million, then the South-South, with over 1.7 million.
While the North Central had about 1.5 million uncollected PVCs, the South-East recorded over 1.4 million, the North-East had over 800,000, and the FCT had about 318,000 uncollected voters cards.
He said: “Ahead of the 2019 general elections, there were 84 million PVCs. I think close to 20 million (PVCs have not been collected).
“It may be a small percentage, but in terms of absolute number, that is huge. 20 million is probably more than the voters of so many West African countries put together.”
To change the narrative, Nessaction, a Civil Society Organisation, CSO, is launching a Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, and the PVC Collection Campaign, in collaboration with INEC, the United Nations Development Programme, and YIAGA Africa, to drive the collection in the FCT and Nasarawa State.
More news later…