As the deadline for the collection of the Permanent Voters Cards gets closer, the Independent National Electoral Commission has explained that some registrants have not been able to receive their Permanent Voter Card and may not be able to vote in the 2023 elections.

According to the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Olusegun Agbaje those affected will be persons who have indulged in double registration which the system would have picked out and are automatically removed from the voter register.

There have been widespread concerns and misgivings in some quarters from some Lagos residents about their inability to pick their voters’ cards and they have expressed their worries that the unavailability of the only mean of voting might deter them from exercising their voting right on February 25th and March 11th, 2023.

Also, long queues have been noted in INEC offices in some parts of Lagos, where some people who have not been able to collect their PVCs were also told that their cards were not printed, and as a result of that they may not be to collect them before Sunday.

Addressing the residents’ complaints the INEC’s Lagos Residential Electoral Commissioner, Mr Olusegun Agbaje pointed at double registration as the reason for the challenge residents are facing with the collection of voters cards.

Speaking on Channels Television on Thursday night, the Lagos Residential Commissioner noted that some voters have registered twice during the continuous voter registration process, and according to the Electoral Acts, the electoral commission could not print their cards.

He added that most of the complainants had earlier registered in a different state before relocating to Lagos state, and they failed to make a transfer request, instead, they had another registration in the state. He noted that the commission guidelines invalidate such registrations and flag them as double registrations.

“The challenge we have is that many people that ought to have done transfer last year did double registrations and by the commission’s guidelines anybody with double registrations cannot get another PVC because it is assumed that he is already having one PVC. The only area we have the majority of people in that category is Oshodi, particularly at Okota in Oshodi Local Government Area.

“And we have told the people that they cannot have PVCs because many of them from the Southeastern part of the country last year because of the insecurity in their area ought to have migrated to Lagos but what they did was to and do another registration which made their registrations to be double registrations. Anybody who does that will not get PVCs, that is the standard rule of the commission it is not made here in Lagos it is the commission’s guidelines, he said.

Refuting the allegation of untoward behaviour and conduct by the staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mr Agbaje stated that such allegations are hearsay. He stated that he had informed the law enforcement agencies to set surveillance on the PVCs collection centres to arrest any of the staff of the commission found culpable of any offence.