1,091,157 old Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) are gathering dust in the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Lagos State.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of INEC in the state, Olusegun Agbaje stated this on Tuesday at a meeting in Ikeja with the leaders of political parties.
Mr. Agbaje also said 27,860 newly printed PVCs were yet to be collected, two months after it started distributing the cards from eligible voters who registered in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).
He described the low rate of PVC collection across Lagos’ 20 local government areas as worrisome.
“The low rate of PVC collection in Lagos State is worrisome as only 6,382 PVCs out of 34,242 received from the Commission’s Headquarters for the first and second quarters CVR had been collected by their owners. This is just 18.6 percent.
“Similarly for the old PVCs, a total of 1,091,157 are still uncollected by their owners.
“In view of the foregoing, I want to strongly urge you to continue to assist the Commission in mobilising the eligible citizens residing in Lagos State that are yet to collect their PVCs to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the ongoing collection of PVCs at the INEC LGA offices where they registered to collect their PVCs,” he said.
CVR Deadline to be Slightly Extended
The INEC boss hinted that the 30 June deadline for the ongoing CVR would slightly be extended
He also discouraged the politicians present at the meeting to desist from employing violence.
He said INEC was worried that Lagos State was one of the most violent states during the last primary elections with five people reportedly killed in two local government areas.
“We cannot continue like this. Therefore, all hands must be on deck with the political party leaders at the forefront to make Lagos State one of the most peaceful states during electioneering campaigns and elections in 2023.
“The political class must change her do-or-die attitude to good conduct in politics by doing away with all election vices including destroying the billboards of opponents, using vulgar languages during campaigns, and using thugs to harass political opponents.”
Mr. Agbaje decried voter apathy and urged the party leaders to increase political awareness.
According to him, only 1,156,590 out of 6,570,291 registered voters (17.6%) participated in the 2019 General Election in Lagos State while only 104, 405 out of 1,343,448 registered voters (7.8%) participated in the 2020 Lagos East Senatorial District bye-election.
