…challenges TESA, others to provide evidence
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has debunked the report making the rounds that its officials were selling Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) ahead of the September 21 governorship election in Edo State.
Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, in a statement debunking the report, described it as false, challenging a civil society group, Transparency for Electoral Systems Advocacy (TESA), to provide concrete evidence against electoral officers to back up its claim of PVCs sale in Edo.
Oyekanmi said the Commission does not sell but issues PVCs free of charge to only registered voters.
He said the allegation followed the pattern of similar narratives levelled against the Commission by partisan groups whenever off-cycle governorship or major elections are about to be conducted.
He said the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has made it practically impossible for any voter to use another person’s PVC to vote.
Oyekanmi further stated that any uncollected PVC cannot be used by anyone to vote during the Edo State governorship election, stressing that any person who attempts to do so will be arrested and handed over to law enforcement agents on election day.
“Besides, the PVC collection process only began in 192 Wards in the State on Thursday 22nd August and will end today Monday 26th August. Thereafter, collection of PVCs will move our 18 Local Government Offices from 28th August to 8th September 2024,” Oyekanmi said.
“Therefore, the notion of ‘uncollected PVCs’ cannot suffice when, in fact, the collection process has just started.
“However, we encourage TESA and other individuals with concrete evidence of unethical acts against any of our Electoral Officers to promptly avail the Commission of the evidence for immediate action,” he said
