Over 15m registered voters yet to collect PVCs, says INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission on Thursday disclosed that over 15 million registered Nigerians are yet to collect their Permanent Voter Cards.

The Commission explained that as at August this year, it printed  54,341,610 PVCs but distributed only 38,774,391, thus leaving a total of 15,567,219 yet to be distributed.

The disclosure came on the heels of President Goodluck Jonathan’s directive to the commission’s Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to ensure that all eligible voters get their PVCs to enable them vote in the February general election.

Going by a data obtained at INEC, out of the 54,341,610 printed PVCs received so far, only 38,774,391 were distributed, which is 71.35 per cent of the total number of PVCs printed.

Providing state-by-state distribution of the PVC, Lagos State with four million PVCs, only 53.98 per cent or 2,159,091 collected theirs, leaving behind 1,840,909 eligible voters without their.

Also in Rivers State with a registered 1,956,983 voters, only 1,253,606 or 64.06 per cent was distributed, leaving behind 703,377 voters without the PVC.

Another state highly affected by the distribution of the PVC is Imo State, where 1,252,307 PVCs were received, but only 682,046 (54.46 per cent) voters have received their PVCs, while 570,261 eligible voters are without theirs.

In Kano state, a total 3,198,859 PVC were received, but only 912,312 or 59.64 per cent PVCs were distributed, with 427,674 yet to be distributed.

Similarly, in Anambra State, 1,665,342 PVCs was received, but only 862,747 (51.81 per cent) was successfully distributed, with 802,595 PVCs yet to be collected by their owners.

In Oyo State, 1,985,370 PVCs were received, with 1,141,405 (57.49 per cent) distributed, while 843,965 yet to be distributed.

The distribution of the PVC in Jigawa State was the most successful because out of 1,551,831 PVCs distributed, 1,460,620 (94.12 per cent)was distributed, leaving only 91,211 to collect theirs.

However, the commission through the Chief Press Secretary to Jega, Kayode Idowu, explained that the remaining cards have been deposited at the local government offices of INEC in the respective states.

Idowu urged eligible voters that were yet to collect their PVCs to go to the local government areas and collect their cards.

He added that the commission would on January 13 publish the list of the registered voters that are eligible to cast their voters.