Barely eight days to the first day of the 2019 general elections, some Nigerians across the country are yet to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
No Nigerian would be allowed to cast his or her ballot without the PVC, according to INEC.
Some eligible voters, who still have their cards in various INEC offices, have, however, given reasons why they are yet to get the card.
Some of the card owners, who spoke to DAILY POST, said they have not collected their PVCs either because they have lost faith in the leading political parties namely the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, or they feel their votes won’t count after all.
Speaking to our correspondent in Abuja, a resident of Dutse, Mrs. Grace Moses, said one of the reasons for abandoning her card with INEC was “because I don’t believe in the two main political parties: the PDP and APC. For me, I’m saying my own. They’ve failed me. Since 1999 I’ve been voting and no change. Even this last one that promised change we did not see any. I’m tired. I won’t continue making one mistake,” she said.
Also speaking with DAILY POST on a street in Asokoro, Mr. Smart Andrew, accused the electoral umpire of making the PVCs collection process difficult for voters.
He said: “The process should have been centralized. I know I’m not the only one that has met this difficulty.
“I went to INEC’s office on more than five occasions to get the card but all to no avail. I won’t continue closing my shop.”
In the same vein, Mr. Yusuf Luka, a resident of Lugbe, said some Nigerians feel the election would be rigged, stressing that votes would not count.
According to him, “How long will I continue to waste my time struggling to collect my PVC and after that I’ll also struggle to cast my vote and after voting what happens? My vote will not count. See, as I’m talking to you now, the votes have been counted, we are just waiting for the declaration on 18th February”.
Speaking on why many PVCs are still uncollected, Samson Adejo, a resident of Mararaba, said some of the owners of the cards are dead and can no longer collect their cards.
Adejo also pointed out that some National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, members, who registered in another state and are currently serving elsewhere “find it very difficult to leave their Place of Primary assignment (PPA) to go back to collect their PVCs.”
However, speaking with DAILY POST on Friday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Deputy Director of Publicity, Abuja chapter, Mr. Aliyu Bello stated that the commission cannot explain why some electorates have not collected their PVCs.
According to him, those electorates who have not collected their PVCs are the ones that will explain why they have not collected them.
Bello said: “Those electorates who have not collected their PVCs are the ones that should tell the reasons why they have not collected them.
“Because the issue is that many voter cards are available for collection, so in whatsoever reasons they [the electorates] said they have not collected their PVCs, I see no good reason why asking the commission why electorates have not to collect their PVCs.”
Asked to give the actual number of uncollected PVCs, Bello said: “There is no actual number of uncollected PVCs right now because the statistic is changing and figures are counting every day from each state.”
Bello however pointed out that the most important thing right now is about the extension of the deadline for PVCs collection.
DAILY POST had reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday extended the deadline for the collection of Permanent Voter Cards to Monday, February 11, 2019.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Friday at a meeting with state Resident Electoral Commissioners RECs in Abuja.
He said: “In the last couple of days, we have been inundated by calls from Nigerians to review the current process of collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards. In response, the Commission has taken the following decisions:
“The collection of PVCs scheduled to end today Friday 8th February 2019 is hereby extended nationwide to Monday 11th February 2019. This will include Saturday and Sunday. The collection of PVCs will now take place from 9am to 6pm daily.
“All State offices are hereby directed to review the procedure for the collection of PVCs and dedicate all the staff of the Local Government offices to the collection process. Staff is enjoined to be civil in attending to citizens and to escalate issues that they cannot immediately resolve to their superiors.
“The Commission wishes to reassure Nigerians that we will continue to take every necessary step to ensure that no registered voter is disenfranchised on account of non-collection of PVCs. Similarly, the Commission is taking urgent steps to address complaints of unavailability of the PVCs of some registered voters before the end the deadline for the collection.
“We wish to reiterate that after the deadline of Monday 11th February 2019, all uncollected PVCs will be recalled and deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for safe-keeping until after the General Elections when the collection of cards and the continuous registration of voters will resume,” he added.
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