Less than one month to the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has disclosed that no fewer than 2,181,059 potential voters in Lagos and Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja would not be permitted to exercise their franchise over failure to collect their Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs.
The electoral commission insisted that despite the low turnout it has recorded, collection of PVCs by proxy would not be permitted.
According to INEC in a document, in Lagos and Abuja showed that 7,510,491 PVCs had been collected in Lagos, while in the FCT, 1,075,211 PVCs were collected.
The document also showed that in the FCT, 230,007 PVCs were not collected between 2011 and 2019 out of 1,229,894 cards, while 230,636 were not collected between 2021 and 2022 out of 305,960 PVCs received by the office.
One of the documents titled: ‘INEC Lagos PVCs Reports,’ showed that the old PVCs received were 6,570,291; old PVCs collected up till December 27, 2022 were 6,652,515; total uncollected old PVCs were 917,776; new PVCs received from Headquarters were 940,200; new PVCs collected as at December 27, 2022 were 137,560; total uncollected New PVCs were 802,640; overall total PVCs received from Headquarters were 7,510,491; overall PVCs collected as at December 27, 2022 were 5,790,075; and overall PVCs uncollected were 1,720,416.
Speaking during a stakeholders meeting, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Lagos State, Mr. Olusegun Agbaje, said: “Uncollected PVCs are available for collection in all INEC offices across the state. And a collection of PVCs by proxy will not be allowed and the collection of PVC is free.”
