ANGER and frustration were the words, across many parts of the country, yesterday, as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, ended collection of the Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, 20 days to the February 25 presidential poll.
Many centres recorded huge turnout of registrants in spite of the biting fuel and Naira scarcities in the country. Although the exercise was seamless in many collection centres, a host of registrants had tales of woes to tell. Some said their cards had not been printed and INEC officials took their phone numbers for a follow-up.
Last week, the INEC extended the deadline to February 5 and ruled out further extension. As of press time the electoral umpire has not extended the exercise fueling fears that millions of registrants who have not collected the prized document are automatically excluded and disenfranchised in the 2023 general polls.
Currently, the electoral body said 83,487 PVCs have not been collected in Kano and 75 per cent of cards have been distributed in Kaduna.
Ibadan residents seek further extension of deadline
In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, lamentation rained as some registered voters who could not collect their cards after many attempts appealed to the INEC to extend the deadline so that they would not be disenfranchised.
It was, however, not all gloomy as testimonies differ from one individual to another, depending on how quick or stressful the collection was to them.
While some condemned the process outright, alleging hanky-panky, some sang the praise of INEC for a job well done.
There were a large number of people at some of the collection centres visited.
In some centres, some of the registered voters said they had arrived as early as 6am, yet they could not collect their cards after waiting for several hours.
In areas like Apete-Ayegun-Awotan in Ido Local Government Area of the state, the distribution was complicated by the lack of enough manpower and other bottlenecks which made it difficult for the INEC officials to attend to the large number of registered voters waiting to get their cards.
At St Matthew Primary School, Akufo, many registered voters expressed disappointment about the long hours they had to spend before they could be attended to.
One of them, Sunday Oke, said after waiting for more than six hours, “it was discovered that my card was not among the ones they were sharing. I did not go to the Church today with my wife. But my name is in their register.”
“We noticed that not all the cards are here, after they told us they have all been taken to the wards for distribution at the INEC centre in the council.”
83,487 PVCs uncollected in Kano
In Kano, there was a mad rush for the cards yesterday, across many centres.
There was a large crowd of registrants at the commission’s Kano Municipal Council office.
An official who spoke on condition of anonymity said 70 to 80 per cent of the registrants had collected their PVCs.
The source said those left were persons who newly carried out the registration and were awaiting the cards.
The source also said the major challenge the INEC faced was with those who carried out double registration.
It was, however, gathered that so far, 83,487 PVCs are yet to be collected in the state.
An official of the commission said “as at 27th January, 2023, the Commission received 444,626 PVCs out of which 361,139 were collected and 83,487 were uncollected PVCs.
(CDA NEWS)
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