Less than one month to the Presidential and National Assembly elections holding February 16, there is growing apprehension over the 5 million uncollected Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) across the country.
Though the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) Mahmood Yakubu has decried specifically that millions of PVCs are yet to be collected, reliable sources at the Commission’s headquarters confided in BDSUNDAY that the specific number of uncollected PVCs is up to 5 million.
The source also hinted that about 1.2 million PVCs has not been printed as claimed by INEC Leadership and on what happens to the cards if not collected before elections, our source said, “they would be taken to INEC Local Government Offices and Area Councils in the case of FCT, Abuja”.
The situation has made stakeholders apprehensive that the unclaimed PVCs could be obtained by desperate politicians, especially those of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in connivance with INEC officials to rig the forthcoming general elections.
They have alleged that already politicians are buying PVCs ahead of the elections and the trend would be worsened with the quantum of uncollected cards; hence there is no possibility to collect all of them before one week to the polls as stipulated by INEC.
Their concerns buttressed the recent outburst by the Umpire body helmsman, Yakubu that, “a new method of vote-buying is being devised. We have received credible information that some partisan actors are now going round buying up PVCs from voters or financially inducing them to collect the VINs on their PVCs.
“In some instances, telephone numbers and details of bank accounts of voters have been collected. By collecting the PVCs, their intention may be to deprive the voters of voting since no one can vote without the PVC. By collecting their phone numbers and bank details, the intention is to induce voters by electronic transfer of funds to their accounts since it will be difficult to buy votes at polling units”.
In apparent show of apprehension on the uncollected PVCs, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Presidential candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP while on a campaign in Osun accused INEC of releasing uncollected permanent voter cards to some APC Governors.
“Now, listen to this very carefully, we have information that INEC has been giving uncollected PVCs to the APC governors. So if a voter comes to your polling booths and you don’t know him, don’t allow him to vote because they want to steal your votes”, Atiku alleged.
Similarly, 61 political parties under the umbrella of Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP worried by the uncollected PVCs, demanded the end of PVC collection 10 days to election and the disclosure of the total number of PVCs collected based on various polling units, as against the one week provided by the Commission.
According to an Abuja resident, Emmanuel Ogbaji the outrageous number of uncollected PVCs is worrisome as it would lead to the “disenfranchisement of many voters and politicians will either buy from corrupt INEC staff or attack their offices and get hold of them to perpetrate electoral frauds”.
“INEC should not stop at the ward level but take the PVCs to polling units and palaces of Kindred Heads in the rural areas so that people can walk less than a Kilometer to collect their PVCs. Also, PVCs could be taken to Churches and Mosques closer to where people register so that they can pick them whenever they come to worship and if possible, collection of PVCs could end 24 hours to elections”, he opined.
In a bid to ensure that Nigerians get their PVCs before general elections, INEC has decentralised the collection of the cards from local government areas to council wards.
According to INEC, “collection of the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) by members of the public, which is being done presently at the Commission’s Local Government Offices, is to be devolved to the 8,809 Registration Areas/Wards from 16th to 21st January 2019 (including Saturday and Sunday).
“After 21st January 2019, collection of PVCs will revert to the Commission’s Local Government Offices and other designated centres to be determined by the states until 8th February 2019, being the last day for collection.
“There will be no extension for the collection of PVCs after the 8th day of February 2019. All uncollected PVCs will be retrieved and kept in a secured place till the general elections are over”.
James Kwen, Abuja
