Taiwo Amodu
Ahead of Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission has released the total number of Nigerians eligible to vote.
A document released to newsmen on Thursday at a media briefing by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, gave a total estimate of 87,209,007as total number of Nigerians that collected their Permanent Voters Cards( PVCs)
The document also revealed 6,259,229 as the total number of Uncollected PVCs.
Checks revealed that the Chairman of INEC had last January at a meeting with the leadership of the political parties gave 93,469,008 as several registered voters.
Lagos, Kano, Kaduna and Rivers topped the list of registered voters, in that order.
In the new data, Lagos and Kano still maintain their first and second position with the highest number of collected PVCs. Lagos has 6,214,970 and Kano has 5,594,193. Kaduna and Katsina came third and fourth with 4,164, 473 and 3,459, 945, respectively.
Further checks revealed that both North West and Southwest retain the regional lead with 21,445,000 and 15,536, 213, respectively.
The northcentral-political zone has 14,603,621 as the total number of collected PVCs while North East has a total estimate of 11,937,769 as collected PVCs. Southeast has 10,401,484 while the South-South has 13,284,920.
Addressing the gathering of journalists and election observers, the INEC Chairman assured that his Commission has made adequate preparation in terms of logistics to ensure seamless conduct of the elections.
He said:” This election is a huge logistical deployment. We have painstakingly procured, organised and delivered all the materials to the States for deployment.
We commenced the delivery of non-sensitive materials over two months ago and they have been batched down to Registration Area/Ward and Pulling Unit levels.
Sensitive materials have been delivered to the States and are presently being delivered to our Local Government Area offices. As such, these materials are only between one and two levels away from the Polling Units.
We have achieved this by learning from our recent difficult experience with logistics.
We have completed arrangements with the transport unions for the final leg of the movement of personnel and materials to the Polling Units. They have assured us of their readiness to provide all the vehicular needs of the Commission for the election.”
Yakubu also restated that his leadership and the entire staff of his Commission would remain non-partisan.
“Finally, I want to assure Nigerians that we are adequately prepared for this election. We remain fully committed to a free, fair and credible process.
I want to once again declare that our allegiance is only to Nigerians. Our commitment is to ensure that in this election we put everything in place for free choice, fair contest and credible outcome.”
Regional spread of Collected PVCs:
Northwest: 21,445,000
Southwest: 15,536,213
North Central: 14,603,621
North East: 11,937,769
South East: 10,401,484
South: 13,284,920
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