INEC says there are 121,317 PVCs yet to be collected in Akwa Ibom state

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom says that 121,317 Permanent Voters cards (PVC) are yet to be collected.  

Mike Igini, Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC), disclosed this in an Interview with the News Agency of Nigeria today saying “no individual can vote without PVC but unfortunately there has been very poor response to collection, this should be a matter of concern to all stakeholders. So far, only 24, 420 have been collected out of 145, 737 PVCs printed and delivered to the state.“  

According to him, 17 per cent of PVCs have been collected in the state. He said that there was urgent need for critical stakeholders to sensitise and galvanise voters to collect their PVCs because “no PVC no voting” in 2019.“  

He urged electorate in the state to mobilise themselves in order to collect their PVCs adding “that without PVC one cannot vote in the 2019 general elections.“ He further advised political stakeholders in the state to mobilise the electorate by providing them with transport to enable collect their PVCs at various local governments.  

“You all know how you assisted to mobilise the people to register by mobilising them from various local governments, using vehicles to bring them to the centres. Please do well enough to mobilise them to various local governments, offices are open as a matter of fact because of the need to suspend the exercise on Aug. 17“ Igini said.

The REC noted with concern that the state had not attained 50 per cent of PVCs collection in the state.  Igini said that the commission had earlier announced the extension of Saturday and Sunday for the collection of PVCs across the 31 local government areas to accommodate as many people as possible. He implored political parties to commence the process of identifying who would be their party agents at various polling units across the state.