The Independent National Electoral Commission has oiled its information management strategy in readiness for deliberate fake news warning Nigerians to be wary of not emanating from official channels of the Commission.

One of such fake news recently pushed out was that the Permanent Voters Cards can be collected by proxy but INEC has quickly dispelled this as false and urged Nigerians to ignore such information as it is untrue.

Also, the commission has dissociated itself from a website’s advertising on recruitment of ad-hoc staff positions for the coming election, INEC has dissociated itself from such a website describing it as a fraud.

INEC had never stated that collection of PVCs could be done by proxy even as the CoThe elections umpire announced on December 2nd, 2022 that Nigerians can begin to collect their Permanent Voters cards starting from December 12th to January 22nd, 2023. In the press statement signed by the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voters Education, Festus Okoye, the commission announced that all eligible registrants would have access to the cards.

Stating the procedure for PVC collection, Okoye explained that PVCs will be distributed across all local governments in the country before extending to the wards. He also noted that eligible voters must be present at the local government in person to present their Temporal Voters Card before they can collect their Permanent Card.

But on Wednesday, a post that sufficed on Twitter indicating that family members, neighbours, friends, and relatives can collect PVCs on others’ behalf. Reacting to the, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman debunked the claim, saying that PVCs cannot be collected by proxy, and any information stating otherwise is false.

“Permanent Voters’ Cards(PVCs) issued by INEC CANNOT be collected by proxy. The insinuation that “you can collect (PVCs) for your neighbours” is false. Every registered voter is required to collect his/her PVC.

Similarly, the Independent National Electoral Commission has also disclaimed a website advertising ad-hoc staff positions for the 2023 general election.

The electoral commission had earlier opened a portal on September 14 for the recruitment of ad-hoc staff into positions like Supervising Presiding Officers, Presiding Officers, Assistant Officers, and Registration Area Technicians for the upcoming elections. Meanwhile, the commission closed the recruitment portal on December 14th, 2022.

But, recently an advert for the positions was posted on a website that resembles INEC’s, imploring people to apply for the job positions. In a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, he noted that the website is fraudulent.

He added that the website was created to mislead the public because the electoral commission has ended its recruitment process. “The website/blog is advertising ad-hoc staff positions for the 2023 General Election,” the statement reads.

“However, the commission is no longer recruiting ad-hoc staff for the 2023 general election. The INEC ad-hoc staff recruitment portal was officially shut down on 14th December 2022.

“Therefore, the site, with the URL – http://www.yournewclaims.com/Inec-Recriutment/ is fake. It is intended to defraud unsuspecting members of the public. Nigerians should disregard it.”

“Some individuals are using different sites to advertise ad-hoc staff positions for the 2023 General Election. However, INEC is no longer recruiting. The INEC Ad-Hoc Staff Recruitment Portal was officially shut down on 14th December 2022. Don’t fall for fraud,” he said.