The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has said that a total of 87,209,007 Permanent Voter Cards have been collected across the country.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who made this known at a media briefing at the National Collation Centre, Abuja reiterated that the procedure for voting as provided in the Electoral Act 2022, clearly makes the use of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) mandatory, adding that the Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) is equally mandatory.
According to the INEC Chairman, “We have completed all the testing of our technologies to be deployed for the election, particularly the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV).
“We are satisfied with the performance of the BVAS, which has been confirmed by several groups that observed the exercise. Lessons learnt from the exercise have helped us in the training of 10,600 Registration Area Technical Support Staff (RATECHS). They will provide the necessary support to ensure that the deployment of the BVAS is without hitches.
“Let me reiterate that the procedure for voting as provided in the Electoral Act 2022, clearly makes the use of the BVAS mandatory. So also, the use of the Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC). The NO PVC, NO VOTING rule subsists.
“In the last few months, we made 13,676,907 PVCs available for collection for new voters and applicants for transfer and replacement of lost/damaged cards”.
While acknowledging that the rate of collection is higher than in previous years, the INEC boss however He however expressed concern over many cards that are yet to be collected.
He assured that the Commission would make public a summary of the numbers of collected and uncollected PVCs in each State of the Federation and upload
the detailed breakdown by Polling Units to the Commission’s website latest on Friday 24th February.
The INEC Chairman clarified that the BVAS machine has not in any way been preloaded before the election day, noting also there is a set timeframe within which the BVAS will operate on election day.
Speaking on the Enugu state incident, Prof. Yakubu said the Commission will invoke Section 34 of the Electoral Act 2022 to counter-mind the Enugu East Senatorial election for two weeks following the murder of the Labour Party’s candidate, Oyibo Chukwu by unknown assailants.
The Chief Electoral Umpire declared that Vote buying remains a major threat to the nation’s democracy, adding that the Commission has worked closely with enforcement agencies to ensure that the menace is eliminated from Nigeria’s electoral process.
Affirming that the ban on the use of mobile phones and photographic devices at the voting cubicles, is still very much in place, Prof. Yakubu revealed that the Commission has been in consultation with other critical agencies and institutions in the administration of the General Election, part of which was with the judiciary about arrangements for post-election adjudication.
The INEC Boss who also hinted on the Commission’s preparedness towards Saturday’s election, said “I want to assure Nigerians that we are adequately prepared for this election. We remain fully committed to a free, fair and credible process.
“I want to once again declare that our allegiance is only to Nigerians. Our commitment is to ensure that in this election we put everything in place for free choice, fair contest and credible outcome”.
