NAN
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says about 333, 000 Permanent Voters Card (PVC) remain uncollected in Niger state.
The state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Samuel Egwu, disclosed this on Thursday during a courtesy visit to the Emir of Minna.
Egwu said the figure was one of the lowest in the country, adding that over 90, 000 PVCs had been collected in the last one month in the state.
He urged the Emir to use his position in helping the commission to cover more grounds in respect of PVC collections.
“We have come to collaborate with you to help us cover more grounds in the state.
“As I am talking to you, Niger state has done very well in terms of getting people we have registered to come and collect their PVCs.
“I can say that in the last one month, we’ve been able to get over 90, 000 cards collected.
“However, we are not very impressed by the figure for Chanchaga Local Government Area.
“So we need to do a lot more to get people from that area to come and collect their cards, because their number is worrying.
“That is why we have come here to appeal to you to use your position to reach out to your people to come forward and collect their cards,’’ he added
The INEC commissioner reiterated the commission’s readiness to conduct credible polls in 2019.
READ ALSO: Suicide bomber kills self in Borno
“I want to give the commitment that we are going to live up to expectations in our role as an unbiased umpire.
“Not only do we want credible elections but we want it to be peaceful as well and we want you to also help us in that regard.
“And we can’t have peaceful elections if we can’t get you to pass this message to the people,’’ he added.
Egwu called on political parties to do more in educating their members on the need to be of good conduct during the elections.
“We are worried that the political parties do not care about their responsibility of educating their members.
“They seem to be only interested in presenting candidates for elections,’’ he said.
In his remarks, the Emir of Minna, Alhaji Umar Bahago, pledged the commitment of his emirate towards ensuring that all registered voters in his domain collected their PVCs.