A total of 3.7 million permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) are to be distributed in Lagos by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in what seems the second batch of the PVCs distribution exercise.
This is as Akin Ambode, APC governorship candidate in Lagos and Jimi Agbaje of the PDP, the two leading candidates in the February elections, have agreed that taxation is needed for service delivery.
There have been complaints and criticisms against the electoral body for the alleged shoddy manner it handled the exercise in Lagos in November last year, as over a million voters who registered in 2011 were said to have not collected their PVCs.
But Akin Orebiyi, the new resident electoral commissioner (REC) in the state, said that a total of 3.7 million PVCs which include fresh registration and the outstanding of the 2011 are to be distributed to eligible voters in 255 wards across the state starting from Friday (today). He also disclosed that about 1.3 million PVCs from the last continuous registration exercise and over 600,000 outstanding from the 2011 exercise were expected to be delivered to Lagos from the INEC headquarters in Abuja before the end of this month.
The REC also disclosed that so far for the February election, some non-sensitive materials had been delivered to his office from Abuja including 5,000 ballot boxes and 5,995 smart card readers.
The exercise, according to Orebiyi, will run seven days of the week from 8:30am to 5:30pm and it is an opportunity for those yet to collect their PVCs to pick them up.
Meanwhile, the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Akinwunmi Ambode and Jimi Agbaje, the flag bearer of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), have said they will tax Lagosians to fast-track the development of the state.
The candidates said this at the 2015 Lagos State Gubernatorial Debate organised by the Anglican Communion, Diocese of Lagos West in collaboration with the Diocese of Badagry and Mainland at the Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral which had in attendance 17 governorship candidates.
Ambode, at the debate that was moderated by Bishop Theologian, Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, Dapo Asaju, said any government that means business of development in the state must resort to collection of taxes to deliver the dividends of democracy.
He noted that the public private partnership (PPP) model that has ensured the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, put at N12 billion, would be introduced into the job creation scheme to create one million jobs every year.
Ambode promised that his government would introduce free-lunch programme in all public primary schools as well as introduce a two-door apartment scheme in the Lagos Homes Mortgage Scheme (LagosHOMS) for affordability and aroused interest in real estate.
Taking his turn Agbaje said, “I quite agree with Akin (Ambode) when he said only four million Lagosians are in the tax net instead of eight million. But Lagos of today is putting the burden of the eight million on the four million that are paying tax. What I will do, is to expand the tax net instead of put burden on four million Lagosians.”
JOSHUA BASSEY
