Worried by complaints emanating from the collection of Permanent Voter Cards, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has mandated its Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) to develop other Initiatives aimed at the seamless distribution of Permanent Voters Cards across the country.

The commission started the distribution exercise on December 6, 2022 at their local government offices in Nigeria and it will End on January 22, 2023. But the electoral commission has further devolved its PVC to the 8,809 Wards and registration centres, for Nigerians to have easy access to voters cards collection.

In spite of these developments, some Nigerians still complain about their inability to get their cards, while some are under the impression that cards might not circulate to all registrants before the elapsing date. The Lagos Resident Commissioner Mr. Olusegun Agbaje has given reasons why all the voter cards may not be collected.

He said Lagos being a cosmopolitan state has many people coming in and going out adding that some of the PVC owners may have relocated to other states, some were schooling in Lagos when they registered, some have travelled out of Nigerian under the “JAPA” syndrome while quite a few may have passed on.

Reacting to the avalanche of complaints, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voters Education Committee, Festus Okoye, on “This Morning” a programme on televison network of TVC, on Monday said the commission is committed to making sure the distribution of PVCs is hitch free for Nigerians.

He stated that even though the commission does not have the metrics to measure the percentage of the collection since the collection states are divided into three, he explained that the participation has been impressive. He also noted that most communities have also been assisting the Commission in the process.

Admitting to the challenges people are having at the collation centres, Barrister Festus Okoye said the commission has been prompt in sending solutions to the centres. “Yes, there are challenges in a few of the registration areas, but in all those areas we have noticed that there are challenges we sent in. As you know, these cards are being given out and made available for collection in 8,809 registration centres or wards.

“The electoral commissioners have also been asked or given the mandate to use their initiatives and to be very creative in terms of making these cards available. In some places, the various communities are providing security and some level of assistance to our officials who are giving out these cards.

“We cannot know the percentage of the cards that have been collected right now, because there are three states of cards that are being issued the first set of cards are the ones who registered prior to the 2019 elections and who have not collected their cards, so these are the backlogs of card we have in our store and these cards have been made available in our store for collection.

“The second relates to those who carried out transfer, those whose cards were lost, defaced or had one challenge or the other. And the third relates to those who registered between 28th, June 2021 and 31st of July 2022. These are the cards that are being collected.

“Our Resident Electoral Commissioners are giving daily updates of collection from all the local governments, some of them are giving their reports every two days, some of them are giving weekly updates”, he stated.

Mr Okoye also denied the allegations of extortion against INEC’s officials, saying that officials do not have enough time to be engaged in such things.

“Now, on the issue of extortion, I do not think any of our staff has the time to engage in the extortion that people are talking about. It is a possibility that there are some touts who may just cluster around the registration areas to extort people”, he stated.

He further appealed to people not to make themselves victims of extortion, as he promised that the commission will do everything to make the PVC collection easier and more accessible.