Shocks may be awaiting those going round some states collecting the last three digits of peoples’ permanent voter’s cards (PVCs).
This is because their suspected plan to use the details to sabotage voting or use the digits to access the PVCs and gain more votes would not work.
This bombshell was dropped in Port Harcourt Thursday, December 1, 2022, by Mark Usulor, head of voter education and publicity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Rivers State.
Usulor spoke at day one of a three-day voter education conference series by WhillzTrust Foundation at Atrium Event Centre on Stadium Road in Port Harcourt.
The foundation had observed that while there is high awareness level over the 2023 elections, but that the step by step knowledge needed by voters to vote their real minds seemed to be low.
Answering questions after his presentation on the new electoral law as it affects the voter, Usulor, said the BVAS would defeat the pranksters working round the clock to defeat it.
He calmed the nerves of those who complained that some persons were going round paying PVC owners to give them the last three digits.
The INEC officials such persons should be allowed to keep harvesting the digits and keep wasting their time.
Usulor said: “Give them the numbers, collect their money. Be sure that whatever they have in mind will never work. The BVAS cannot be beaten. Go ahead and vote your mind on that day, nothing is happening.”
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He drew more applause when he revealed that the BVAS would perform three roles including the voter registration it did earlier, later it would also do electronic accreditation and result transmission.
He also reacted to multiple registration, saying it was caused by politicians buying people to go and register. “The agents of some politicians had targets to meet and they were paying people to go and register, not bothering to confirm whether those persons were already in the database or not.”
During the lecture, Usulor, a lawyer, said the electoral arrangements have provisions for all classes of people living with disabilities (PLWDs). He said they would be attended to before others.
He also said security flash points have been identified and mapped, adding that Rivers State case is being treated and that meeting will take place soon at the police officers mess.
The education desk head battled with those who wanted INEC to lead in countering the attempt by the Rivers State governor to regulate the campaigns with Executive Orders. They also asked INEC whether by employing over 200,000 persons as polling unit advisers and assistants, if the state governor had not openly done vote-buying.
Usulor asked such persons to go to court and probably join INEC in their suits.
In his welcome speech, the Executive Director of WhillzTrust Foundation, Aaron Anyanwu, said to sufficiently address the theme of the conference, they lined up representatives of critical stakeholders in Nigeria’s political landscape; individuals who are passionate about the reason why WhillzTrust Foundation has come to exist.
“These include the promotion and the development of sustainable and participatory democratic governance birthed by adequately informed and equipped Nigerian voters.’
As a non-partisan, non-profit, and a public-interest organization, he said, WhillzTrust Foundation was borne out of the need to entrench democratic values in Nigerian citizens by their involvement in a credible and peaceful electoral process.
“To achieve our purpose to increase the number of eligible voters especially at grassroots we work hand in hand with a host of partners and agencies of government.”
Key speakers at the event include Kingsley Wali (National Leader, Unity House Foundation); Ibim Sementari (a journalist, publisher, former commissioner of Information, and former MD of the Niger Delta development Commission, NDDC).
The new commissioner of police in the state, Okon Effiong, was represented by an assistant commissioner, Solomon Akika, who is the Police Area Commander in Choba.
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