February 19, 2018

The Ebonyi Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) wants the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to arrest and prosecute anyone found trafficking in Permanent Voter Cards in the state.

The state chairman of APC, Mr Eze Nwachukwu, made the call in Abakaliki on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Nwachukwu said that INEC should beam its searchlight on some politicians who indulge in collecting PVCs from unsuspecting owners in exchange for money or promises of employment in the state civil service.

The chairman also urged the commission to invoke relevant sanctions against violators of the electoral act.

He pointed out that to buy or sell PVCs or dispossessed the owner of the document under any pretence constituted electoral offence punishable by law.

According to him, the seller and the buyer of the PVC are both liable and should be arrested for prosecution and must be sentenced upon conviction.

“We are regularly getting intelligence reports from our members on trafficking in PVCs going on especially at the community and village levels and we have the names of those allegedly behind the scam.

“We will compile comprehensive list of the people involved and political party they are working for and send to INEC and the police for investigation, arrest and prosecution.

“We have consistently assured the electorate that votes must count in 2019 general elections.

“We are going to leave no stone unturned in ensuring that we achieve this by ensuring that we stop desperate politicians from manipulating unsuspecting eligible voters,’’ Nwachukwu said.

He said the party had embarked on sensitisation campaign to 13 local government areas of the state to sensitise and educate the people on the importance of their voter cards and how to safe-guard them.

“We embarked on a Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) sensitisation rally to the 13 local government areas where we mobilised eligible voters to go and register and collect their PVCs.

“We sensitised them on ways to protect and safe-guard their cards and also to report anybody coming to ask for the sale of their PVCs or to exchange them for employment or empowerment to INEC or the Police”.

He commended INEC for improving on the registration process and urged the commission to sustain the current efforts by ensuring that all eligible voters who were not yet captured were registered before the 2019 general elections.