ABUJA – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that after completing the data clean up of its system, a total of 1,854,859 PVCs are now ready for collection nationwide.
The chairman of the Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, made this known at a press briefing at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
According to him, the Commission has printed 1,390,519 PVCs for genuine new registrants. In addition, 464,340 PVCs for verified applicants for transfer or replacement of cards have also been printed. Consequently, cards will be delivered to State offices across the country over the Easter holiday.
” They will be available for collection by the actual owners in person immediately after the holiday. No PVC will be collected by proxy. I must reiterate that the available cards only cover those who registered in the First and Second Quarters of the exercise.”
The Commission also assured those who registered between January and March 2022 as well as those who are doing so right now that their PVCs will be ready for collection long before the 2023 General Election.
The Commission equally reiterated that the dates for all activities in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election, including the conduct of party primaries, are firm and fixed, noting that about ten political parties have served notices to the Commission for the conduct of their primaries.
“With 52 days to the last day for the conduct of primaries (i.e. 3rd June 2022), political parties are once again admonished to adhere strictly to all dates in the Timetable, including the nomination of their candidates via the INEC web portal. Such nominated candidates must emerge from valid primaries as provided in Section 84 of the Electoral Act 2022. This is necessary to avoid the unhappy consequences of any breach of the Commission’s Timetable or the Electoral Act, the chairman added
The chairman appealed to all Nigerians who registered between June and December 2021 to collect their PVCs in person as the commission will not release any card in proxy.
“We have devolved the voter registration beyond our State and Local Government offices nationwide, the PVCs will also be available at such designated centres to make the collection easier for voters. In addition, we will also contact the 1.8 million registrants by email and text messages on the availability of the cards and the places to collect them.”
