The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has identified two potential causes for a large number of uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in Lagos state.
According to INEC, there are over 900,000 uncollected PVCs from previous registrants in Lagos alone. However, the electoral body predicted that 400,000 of the uncollected PVCs would be collected before the start of the upcoming general election.
When asked why there are still a lot of uncollected PVCs of old registrants in Lagos, Mr. Olusegun Agbaje, the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, said the cards remained uncollected probably because the owners have left Lagos or are dead.
We have the old ones that are about 900,000 before, the number has even reduced now, and that is why uncollected PVCs seem to be on the high side”, Agbaje told Punch.
I had earlier told some journalists that those PVCs cannot all be collected because many of the owners of the PVCs have relocated, we have so many institutions in Lagos, some students are no longer in the state, we also have government workers, and other workers who have been transferred. Some even left Nigeria, some may have died.
So many people cannot collect theirs again. However, we still have about 200, 000 to 400,000 PVCs that can still be collected during this period.”
On the improved process of collecting the PVCs, Agbaje added: “I think the collection of the PVCs has started to improve now that we have transferred the collection of the local government to the residential areas. They have been able to attend to many people. Areas like Agege, we have 11 RAs there, Ifelodun, Alimosho, we also have 11 RAs there. We have 45 RAs across the country so people who were unable to collect at the LGs can go there too.
Many of my Electoral Officers have said they are going to have more than they have been having in the LGs. They have gone today; they have more than 2,000. We will look at the outcome on the 15th of this month.
Before now, the Public Affairs Officer of INEC in Lagos, Mrs. Adenike Oriowo, said the commission received a total of 7,510,941 PVCs, out of which 5,879,747 had been collected. At the same time, 1,630,744 were uncollected as of Wednesday.