A few weeks before the presidential and national assembly elections in the country, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in Edo State, has disclosed that a total of 522,000 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) are yet to be collected in the state.
The Commission explained that the 522,000 uncollected PVCs comprise both the old and the new PVCs from the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).
This was disclosed by the state INEC Voter Education Officer, Mr Timidi Wariowie, yesterday, during a town hall meeting on youths participation in the forthcoming election, organised by a non-governmental organisation, Yes Project, tagged “Value Your Votes Najia” in Benin City.
He revealed: “At the end of the CVR exercise, 419,000 PVC including fresh registration, transferring cards from one point to another and updating information were sent to the Edo INEC office.
“As of yesterday (Wednesday), out of the 419,000 PVCs, 299,000 have been collected while about 120,000 are still uncollected. Also, about 402,000 old PVC are yet to be collected in the state.”
He stated that at the commencement of the distribution of the new PVCs the daily collection was above 20,000, lamenting that the daily collection has reduced to between 1000, 2000 and 3000 across the 18 local governments.
Wariowie charged the youths organisation and Civil Society Organisations(CSOs) in the state to continue to sensitize the youths on the need to register and get their PVCs, maintaining that it is the only means they can vote for their preferred candidate during the forthcoming election.
Earlier, the Executive Director, Yes Project, Oche Precious, said the event tagged “Value Your Vote Naija” was to sensitize and reawaken the youth on the need to cast their vote come February 25 and March 11 elections.
“This is the time to change the narrative by going out to cast overvotes and decide the next leader that will pilot the affairs of our nation.”
Other participants who also spoke at the event charged the youths not to sell their conscience through vote buying, saying this is the time for the youths to vote their conscience.
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