The Independent National Electoral Commission said it would establish two Permanent Voter Card distribution centres in each of the 260 wards in Enugu State.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC in the state, Chukwuemeka Onukogu, disclosed this in Enugu on Thursday at a workshop on the “Role of Security Agencies and Stakeholders in Elections”.
Onukogu said the centres had become necessary in order to ensure that all registered voters in the state were not disenfranchised in the February elections.
He said: “I urged you to collect your PVC because we have decided to make it available at different wards in the state and not the local governments anymore.
“The PVC is your power to credible election in the country because it will be properly checked by a system called card reader for identification of genuine ones.
“All these measures were to ensure free, fair and credible elections in the state.”
In his speech, the Attorney General of the state, Anthony Ani, stressed the need for adequate security during elections and beyond.
According to Ani: “It is not only on election days that we have security issues, we have security issues before voters’ registration, during voting and after voting.
“There should be proper division of labour among security agencies from the top ranking officers to the last cadre.”
The attorney general urged the police to arrest and prosecute anybody involved in electoral malpractices and violence.
Ani advised that people should be law-abiding in order to ensure free and fair elections in the country.
Earlier, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Adamu Mohammed, said that the workshop was aimed at interacting with stakeholders on their roles in ensuring credible and violent-free elections in the state.
Mohammed said: “We are here to remind ourselves of what is expected of us before, during and after elections.
“It is to ensure that there will be no problem during the period of the election.
“That is why we have policemen, representatives from our sister security agencies and other stakeholders in the state to put heads together and marshal out strategies of ensuring free, fair and credible election in 2015.”
In his remark, the National Conscience Party governorship aspirant, Dr. Chinonyelu Odumejemba, said security was the most important thing in an election.
According to Odumejemba, inadequate security discourages people from participating actively in politics.
Similarly, the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress, Okey Ezea, urged INEC and the police to provide a level playing ground for all political parties during the elections.
Ezea said: “INEC always brings out a guideline but most of the times, it is faulted.
“The police on the other hand intimidate voters and the aspirants at the polling units.”