Fawaz Adebisi
As the clock ticks down to the November 11th governorship election in Imo State, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has revealed that approximately 134,000 Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, remain uncollected by registrants.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Sylvia Agu, made this disclosure during a press briefing in Owerri on Wednesday.
Prof. Agu stated that INEC had resumed the issuance of PVCs for the forthcoming election on September 11th and would continue this process until October 9th.
She expressed concern over the large number of uncollected PVCs, noting that they are currently stored in the 27 local government council secretariats across the state.
She therefore said, “I urge Imo residents to collect their PVCs at the INEC offices in their council areas, while those in Orsu Local Government Area should collect theirs at the state office in Owerri.
“Apart from the 27 local government area offices, INEC has also created some centres for PVC collection for Registration Areas that have more than 1,000 uncollected PVCs,’’ she said.
Prof. Agu emphasized that PVCs cannot be collected by proxy and must be exchanged with the Temporary Voter Cards.
To enhance outreach, INEC has taken the step of collecting the phone numbers of uncollected PVC owners in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi, with plans to send bulk SMS notifications to them.
Regarding election preparedness, Prof. Agu assured the public that INEC is fully equipped and ready for the upcoming election in Imo State.
She confirmed the receipt of all non-sensitive materials, which will be efficiently distributed to the various local government areas.
“The Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security of which the police is the lead agency is on top of the security situation and shall draw up security architecture for the exercise,” she said.
She therefore affirmed the INEC’s commitment to conducting a free, fair, and transparent election in Imo State.
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