The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)in Lagos State on Friday, decried the poor turnout of the electorate for the collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in the state.
INEC’s Public Affairs Officer in Lagos state, Mrs. Adenike Oriowo, told the media that only 224, 490 of 940,200 newly printed PVCs had so far been collected as of Wednesday.
The figure, she said, was across the commission’s offices in the 20 local government areas of the state.
Oriowo said that a total of 715, 710 new PVCs were yet to be collected by their owners in the state as of Wednesday.
On the old PVCs, she said that the commission received a total of 6, 570,291 PVCs out of which 5, 655, 257 were collected, the remaining 915, 034 uncollected in the state as of Wednesday.
According to her, the overall total PVCs (old and new) received by the state from INEC headquarters in Abuja as at the record time stands at 7, 510, 941 out of which 5,879,747 have been collected, while 1,630, 744 were yet to be collected as of Wednesday.
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The INEC official said that the commission had also on Friday, devolved the collection of PVCs to the 245 Registration Areas/Wards in the state as planned.
She said that PVC applicants had the opportunity to visit their Registration Areas/Wards from Jan. 6 to 15 to pick up their cards in person and not by proxy at the ward levels.
She said the exercise would revert to the local government levels by Jan 15.
“We have moved the PVCs to the RAs (Registration Areas) today. We want the people to use the opportunity and create time to pick up their cards,” Oriowo said.
She said the commission in its wisdom had taken the PVCs closer to where people lived to afford them the opportunity to pick up the cards and participate in the forthcoming elections.
Recall that INEC had fixed Feb.25 for the Presidential and National Assembly Elections and March 11 for the Governorship and State House Assembly Elections.