Ahead of the November 11 off-cycle governorship polls in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa State, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has decried the low collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) by residents, News About Nigeria reports.
According to the Commission, over 241, 715 Permanent Voter Cards are yet to be collected by the voters in the states with just two weeks to the October 9, 2023 deadline fixed for the collection of the cards.
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, disclosed this on Thursday, noting that the commission will not extend the collection of PVCs in the states.
Rotimi who admonished registered voters not to delay in picking up their cards, also charged concerned electorates against waiting till the last minute to collect their PVCs.
In his words: ‘’The commission is not considering an extension of the PVC collection exercise at this point.
“Registered voters who are yet to collect their PVCs still have two weeks to do so. From our experience, more people tend to take action close to the deadline, which is not a good habit. It will exert much undue pressure on our state offices, which is also unfair. The earlier voters collect their PVCs, the better.”
He also revealed that INEC has gone a step further to gather the phone numbers of the owners of the uncollected PVCs in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi to send bulk SMS to them.
According to him, this is to ensure that they are able to collect it in order to be able to exercise their franchise on the day of the election.
