INEC voids 47,633 PVCs in Ekiti ahead of guber polls

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says it has invalidated 47,633 permanent voters card on account of double registration.

The commission revealed that this double registrations were detected on its portal.

The INEC’s Head of Department, Information and Communication Technology, Titilayo Oderinde, made the revelation in Ado Ekiti, on Saturday, during a day training workshop organised for Ekiti journalists in preparation for the impending governorship poll.

She disclosed that such people have had their registration invalidated to prevent double voting during election, with the aid of the Bimodal Voter Authentication System(BVAS) invented by INEC to sanitise its registers.

Oderinde, who elucidated on the BVAS application and its significance to the credibility of elections, said no individual can exercise double franchise during election with the help of the ICT innovation.

He said: “During the just concluded Continuous Voter Registration exercise declared by INEC for intending voters to update their registration, a total of 124,963 persons registered in Ekiti.

“But it will surprise you that when the number was subjected to BVAS scrutiny, a total of 47,633 were discovered to have registered twice and got expunged from the register.

“Though, the commission was so lenient that one of the double registrations was struck out leaving one for the voter to exercise his franchise. It is not applicable to a gender, the offence was committed by both genders.

“But I see no reason why people should be doing this when they can approach the commission for migration of their polling units, even if they leave their environment for another location”.

Also addressing the participants, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ekiti State, Dr. Adeniran Tella, appealed to voters not to treat their Permanent Voter Cards(PVCs) as instruments for mere identification, saying they are to be deployed to vote on election day.

“PVCs are not designed as identification cards, they are for voting. We want to do away with this voter apathy and we are starting with the Ekiti election. I salute our women for participating well in registration. 71% of them had also collected their PVCs.

“We are assuring the People Living with Disabilities that their interests will be protected by the commission. They are Nigerians with inalienable rights to vote and we shall provide an enabling environment for them to vote in this election, we have made adequate provision for them.”