To ensure that registered voters get their permanent voter cards, PVCs before the 2019 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC will soon devolve collection of PVCs at the ward level.
INEC state offices would at the end of this week take delivery of 1.9 million PVCs comprising 1,178,793 replacement for damaged, defaced or lost PVCs and 769,917 intra and inter-State transfers of PVCs being processed.
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman who announced this Tuesday at the police/stakeholders’ summit organized by the Nigeria Police Force in Abuja, restated the commitment of the Commission to ensuring free, fair and credible polls that would further consolidate Nigerian democracy.
Yakubu said it was imperative to review the template for the 2019 General Election in order to reassure Nigerians and the international community of the country commitment to credible elections and to protect the sanctity of the electoral process.
He stated that, INEC will engage with the security agencies, particularly the police in defining new parameters for the deployment of security agencies in the electoral process as well as to arrest and prosecute electoral act violators.
“As with all elections, security is going to be a major issue in the 2019 General Election. Security agencies have a responsibility to secure the environment for elections. In doing so, there is the overriding responsibility for professionalism and neutrality.
“The rules of engagement must be clear to all. Learning from the cumulative experience of the off-season elections conducted into 195 constituencies since the 2015 General Election, the conduct of some security personnel has become a major issue of discussion. We are deeply concerned.
“The security agencies will continue to secure the environment in a manner that voters, observers and the media shall not feel intimidated or harassed. The process of conducting election shall remain the responsibility of INEC.
“We will continue to emphasise this point in our interaction with the security agencies both in a forum such as this as well as the meetings of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCESS)”, Yakubu stated.
