Millions of uncollected PVCs force INEC to shift deadline

• Published date: 13 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

13.87m cards printed for valid registrants Agency probes alleged extortion

From Damian Duruiheoma, Enugu, Sunny Nwankwo, Umuahia and Adamu Suleiman, Sokoto

Millions of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) are yet to be collected a few days before the deadline.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) admitted this yesterday, 24 hours after it gave the list of registered voters as 93.47 million.

The electoral agency last night extended the collection deadline by eight days. It will now expire on January 29.

The presidential election is slated for February 25. The National Assembly election is also slated for the same day.

The governorship and House of Assembly election will hold on March 11.

INEC, which released the final list of 93.5 million registered voters for this year's general election on Wednesday, predicated the extension on the need for all registered voters to have 'ample opportunity' to collect their cards.

It added that it was encouraged to do so after noticing that thousands of PVCs were collected in the last five days since the 'devolution (or distribution) to ward level started' on January 6.

The electoral umpire had fixed January 22 as the last date for PVC collection in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The INEC final list shows that of the 93,469,008 registered voters, the Northwest has the highest number with 22,255,562 and the Southwest second with 17,958,966.

Northcentral is third with 15,363,731 would-be voters; Southsouth fourth with 14,440,714 and Northeast with 12,542,429.

The Southeast has the least number, with 10,907,606 eligible voters.

A state-by-state breakdown of the list shows Lagos in the Southwest tops the list with 7,060,195 registered voters.

It is followed by Kano in the Northwest, which has 5,921,370 eligible voters.

Ekiti in the Southwest has the least number of voters with 502,251.

INEC, in a statement by its National Commissioner and spokesman Festus Okoye, said: 'Collection at Registration Area (Ward) level is extended by a week from Monday 16th - Sunday 22nd January 2023.

'Collection at the local government level will resume on Monday 23rd - Sunday 29th January 2023.'

Okoye said the commission had commenced a probe of 'allegations of extortion by officials at some of the collection centres and inducement by some unscrupulous voters to circumvent processes in order to obtain their PVCs'.

He added that INEC was also disturbed by allegations of discriminatory issuance of PVCs in some locations.

The National...