Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) has decried the low rate of Permanent
Voter’s Cards (PVCs) collection.
The electoral umpire said only 6,382 Permanent Voter’s Cards
(PVCs) out of 34,242, have been collected by their owners from the Commission’s
Headquarters in Lagos for the first and second quarters.
Mr Olusegun Agbaje, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner
(REC) for Lagos State, made this disclosure on Thursday at the 8th Annual
Constituency Stakeholders’ Meeting organised by the Lagos State House of
Assembly, held simultaneously across the 40 Constituencies in the state.
Agbaje, who was a special guest at the meeting held at the
Lagos Mainland Constituency 2, expressed concern that the low rate of PVC
collection in the state is worrisome.
The Lagos REC, who was represented by Mrs Olamide Dojumo,
Electoral Officer, Lagos Mainland LGA, also disclosed that for the old PVCs, a
total of 1,091,157 are still uncollected by their owners.
“In view of the foregoing, I want to strongly urge you to
continue to assist the Commission in mobilizing the eligible citizens residing
in Lagos State that are yet to collect their PVCs to take advantage of the
opportunity provided by the ongoing collection of PVCs at the INEC LGA offices
where they registered to collect their PVCs, as anyone without the PVC cannot
vote during the election. Simply put ‘no PVC no voting’
“You will agree with me that the success of any election
depends largely on how relevant stakeholders play their various roles.
Therefore, everyone must strive towards ensuring that their contributions are
effective, positive and purposeful for the attainment of the Nation’s desired
viable, sustainable and enduring democratic culture.
“As the general election draws near, we should properly
educate and mobilize the voters in line with the Electoral Act 2022 and the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended). This is a
significant area where the Commission needs the positive input of all
stakeholders to complement her ongoing efforts toward improving the level of
awareness of the citizenry in the democratic process.
“This will no doubt increase the PVC collection rate and
avoid voter apathy that has characterized the past elections in the state where
only 1,156,590 out of 6,570,291 registered voters (17.6%) participated in the
2019 general election in Lagos State. Similarly, only 104,405 out 1,343,448
registered voters (7.8%) participated in the 2020 Lagos East Senatorial
District By-election”.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com