The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC says uncollected Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs will be quarantined from February 8 till the end of the February 16 and March 2 general elections. Business Day investigations revealed that about five million PVCs are yet to be collected 17 days to the first round of the polls.
Stakeholders in the electoral process have being expressing fears that the uncollected PVCs would be acquired by politicians particularly those from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC to rig the elections.
For instance, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Presidential candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP while on a campaign in Osun accused INEC of of releasing uncollected permanent voter cards to some APC Governors.
“Now, listen to this very carefully, we have information that INEC has been givig 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.
But Yakubu Mahmood, INEC Chairman in an address at National Youth Summit for the 2019 general elections in Abuja on Tuesday assured that at the end of the February 8 deadline for the collection of PVCs the uncollected cards will be quarantined until after the elections to avoid access to them.
Yakubu also promised that the Electoral Umpire will make public the number of collected and uncollected PVCs before the elections for Nigerians to know exactly the number of those that would vote out of the over 84 million total registered voters.
He commended INEC Youth Ambassadors and Nigerian youths generally for their role in sensitizing Nigerians to get registered as voters and charged them to also mobilize the people collet their PVCs to be able vote in the 2019 general elections.
“The next step after registration is to mobilize the youths to collect their PVCs. Without the PVCs you simply cannot vote. We devolve the collection to ward level twice and collection of PVCs will continue until Friday, the 8 of February, essentially eight days to the general elections.
“I want to assure you and assure Nigerians that all uncollected PVCs will be quarantined until after the general elections. And we will make public the number of all collected PVCs nationwide so that citizens will know the number of PVCs collected and the number of PVCs uncollected for the purpose of knowing exactly, out of the 84, 4084 registered voters who will vote in 2019 general elections and who will not.
“I also want to appeal to our Ambassadors to continue to appeal to our youths for peaceful elections in 2019. Conflict, violence, disruption are the exact antithesis of credible elections. Since the majority are young people, you should not allowed yourselves to mobilized for wrong reasons. Don’t be mobilized for doing the wrong thing by people whose future is already determined”, Yakubu urged.
The INEC Chairman noted that the forthcoming general elections were for the youths as they constitute the highest number of registered voters while parties have fielded many youths as candidates following the enactment of the ‘Not too Young to Run’ Law and urged them to take the polls seriously.
“The 2019 election is actually election for the youth. The largest majority of those who registered are young Nigerians. 22.3 million(26%) of those who registered are officially by occupation described as students, followed by the second category called farmers and fishermen with 13.6 million( 16.2%) of the registered voters.
“But among the farmers and fishermen, the majority are also the youth. So, those between the ages of 18 and 35 constitute 42.9 million which is 51% of the total number of registered voters in the country.
“We have large number of youths participating in elections as candidates. Many of the political parties have nominated young people, thanks to the struggle by YIAGA and others for the ‘Not too Young to Run’. This is yet another example of what I said the 2019 general election is essentially for the youths”, he said.
In a remark, Ketil Karlsen, Head of European Union (EU) Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS promised the sustenance of EU to the democratization process in Nigeria and commended INEC for the preparations ahead of the 2019 general elections so far as well as the Nigerian Youths for the public outreach campaigns been cried out across the country.
According to Karlsen, “the not too young to run is reflecting the spirit of our partnership with Nigeria in the promotion of democracy. Strictly led initiatives, Nigerian led policies and Nigeria institutions because it is not for the European Union to decide for Nigeria but it is the European Union as a true partner of Nigeria, to reach out, to help our partners to our best ability.”
In their separate comments, Bello Shagari, President National Youth Council and Danielson Akpan, President National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS promised to maintain collaboration with INEC to mobilize youths and other Nigerians to participate in the general elections as well as to champion the campaign for peaceful and credible polls.
James Kwen, Abuja
