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PVC: Lagos REC Targeting 90 Percent Collection By Monday

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos, Adekunle Ogunmola, on Thursday said the agency was working towards having a 90 percent collection rate of the Permanent … Continue reading PVC: Lagos REC Targeting 90 Percent Collection By Monday


Adekunle OgunmolaThe Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos, Adekunle Ogunmola, on Thursday said the agency was working towards having a 90 percent collection rate of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) in Lagos by Monday, November 17.

“We are very hopeful that by Monday we should have close to 90 percent collection”, Ogunmola said, while addressing issues surrounding the collection of the cards ahead of the 2015 general elections.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had approved the distribution of PVCs in 13 states in the third phase of the exercise which held between Friday, November 7 and Sunday, November 9.

The PVC distribution was to take place in Adamawa, Borno, Edo, Imo, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Plateau and Rivers states, four days after which the agency would hold the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise between November 13 and 17.

However, the exercise did not go smoothly as there were several reported cases of cards being burnt and in other cases, they were not distributed.

The exercise had to be postponed in Nasarawa State due to short supply of materials.

According to Ogunmola, the hiccups experienced in Lagos were not peculiar to the 170 million strong commercial city, as the PVC distribution exercise had to be postponed in some other states but “because Lagos state was able to get the cards for 11 local governments, we were asked to complete the first set, so that the second set will join those other four states between the 28th and 30th of this month.”

He however expressed regret about the agency’s performance, which had been widely criticised, but also thanked God for the response level, adding that “people are coming out to collect the cards”.

He noted that another problem was on the misunderstanding concerning the schedule of the distribution as “people thought that we were going to distribute for three days and put a curtain on the distribution”.

He however explained that INECs plan was to take the cards as close to the people as possible, after which distribution will be done at the local government offices “where people can now come and collect the Permanent Voters Card till the end of January”, he said.

He announced that the agency had decided to carry out distribution at the various wards in the local governments in Lagos State.