January 12, 2023

A total of 307,394 potential voters have yet to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in Cross River, INEC’s spokesperson in the state, Mrs. Tonia Nwobi, said in Calabar on Thursday.

Iwobi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that refusal to collect the cards could lead to voter apathy at the 2023 general elections.

She explained that 97,381 cards were produced for voters in Cross River in 2019, but only 8,045 PVCs were collected.

She added that of the 233,481 potential voters who registered for PVCs in Cross River in 2021/2022, only 68,073 persons turned up to collect the cards.

Of the 70,474 voters who transferred their voting points to Cross River, only 17, 824 persons collected their new cards leaving 52,650 cards uncollected.

Iwobi appealed to political parties and to civil society organisations to join hands with INEC to sensitise the electorate about the need to collect the cards.

She expressed regret that in spite of the fact that INEC took the cards to local governments and wards for ease of collection, their owners remained adamant.

“Our challenge is that people are not coming out enough in spite of the sensitisation through the media and through other stakeholders.

“They want INEC to decentralise the PVC collection centres to polling units’ level.

“INEC is also faced with the problem of failure to comply with the PVC collection procedures at the collection centres,’’ she lamented.

General elections begin with the presidential vote on Feb. 25, to be followed by the National Assembly, governorship and state assemblies elections on March 11. (NAN)