Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it is investigating allegations about uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) buried underground in some locations, including the compound of a high-profile Nigerian.
The INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, made this known in a statement on Thursday.
Some videos had emerged online showing some of the PVCs in inappropriate locations, with Nigerians wondering what INEC was doing about the discovery of the PVCs in hidden places.
Reacting, Okoye said, “The Commission is not taking these allegations lightly. We have commenced an immediate investigation and anyone found culpable in this diabolical scheme clearly intended to disenfranchise Nigerians will be sanctioned under the law.
“Every eligible Nigerian who registered as a voter is entitled to his/her PVC. The constitutional right to vote in any election must never be suppressed or abridged in any way.”
Okoye, who appealed to those who found the allegedly buried PVCs to deliver them to the commission’s nearest state or local government office noted that “This will be their patriotic contribution to the consolidation of our electoral process.”
Meanwhile, the INEC Commissioner vowed that the electoral body would counter attempts to sabotage the process of getting PVCs to the registered voters.
He insisted that “As far as the record of the commission is concerned, PVCs have been printed for all valid registrants in Nigeria up to January 14, 2022 and delivered to all the states of the federation for collection by voters. We will not allow retrogressive elements to sabotage our efforts.”
Okoye, while assuring Nigerians that the allegation would be pursued to its logical conclusion, maintained that “the issues of voter registration, a compilation of the voters’ roll and issuance of PVCs are at the heart of any democratic elections and the Commission is working hard to ensure that every eligible citizen who appears in person at the registration venue is registered.”
He said that INEC had already started reviewing the procedure for collecting PVCs to make it less cumbersome and more transparent, saying that “This will be a major topic at the next regular quarterly meeting with stakeholders so that working together we can find a lasting solution to the issue.”
