By Cosmas Omegoh, Olakunle Olafioye, Daniel Kanu and Agatha Umeadi
The recent announcement on the collection of Permanent Voters cards (PVC) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has elicited a lot of activities at the commission’s offices nationwide.
This is as it has also exposed certain loopholes and inadequacies which must be properly addressed before the 2023 general elections.
INEC announced last week that PVC collection would commence at its offices in each of the 774 local government areas across the country from Monday, December 12. It disclosed that the collection would be decentralized to the various wards from January 6, 2023.
“After the 15th of January 2023 the exercise will revert to the local government offices of the commission until 22nd January 2023.
“All eligible and valid registrants can collect their PVCs from 9:00a.m to 3:00p.m daily, including Saturdays and Sundays,” the INEC stated.
Consequently, Nigerians who are yet to get their PVCs are daily trooping to the INEC offices to collect them.
And expectedly, they are having different experiences. While some have been quite lucky to collect their PVCs with ease, many have had bitter experiences and are yet to collect theirs.
At Ikorodu, nobody collected any PVC from the INEC office at GRA estate, close to the Ikorodu General Hospital on Monday.
Sunday Sun gathered that the PVC was yet to arrive at their office on Monday.
The development could not be tolerated by some registrants who arrived at the venue early, but were not told the PVCs were not yet available at the time.
It was after most of them had wasted enough time that they were informed that the PVC was yet to get to their office and that they should go and come back the next day.
They were enraged and as a result there was confusion within the INEC premises.
When Sunday Sun visited the office on Wednesday, normalcy have been restored as everything was moving on fine and people were seen collecting their PVCs.
Sunday Sun gathered also that in most INEC offices in Lagos the exercise has not been smooth as some registrants that spoke with Sunday Sun expressed disappointment.
“They are playing games with this PVC collection. When they ask you your name or when you give them your name to collect the PVC, from your name they may tell you to check back tomorrow or if it is a change of location, they will tell you it has not been done that you should check back in a week or two,” a woman, who would not want her name mentioned, told Sunday Sun.
But the experience of Mr Wasiu Wale who spoke to Sunday Sun at Ikorodu was different. He told Sunday Sun that “I have just collected my PVC and the process was quite easy for me. I did not spend up to 40 minutes, but I was at their (INEC) office on time”.
In Agbado-Oke Odo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) and Agege Local Government Area, intending voters expressed their disappointment over INEC’s inability to get their PVCs ready as announced by the electoral commission. Registrants who visited both centres in the hope of getting their PVCs said that they were disappointed to note that the PVCs were yet to get to both locations despite the announcement by INEC, describing the situation as a bad omen ahead of the coming elections.
An intending voter who identified himself as Mr Segun Idowu at Agbado-Oke Odo LCDA told Sunday Sun that he was shocked to realise that INEC had not deployed the PVCs of registrants in the area to the LCDA.
His words: “I heard that the PVCs had been brought to the LCDA, so I decided to come over only to be told that the PVCs are yet to be brought to this place. I was even expecting them to ask me to come back later, but instead I was told to go to Ikotun for it. This could be a signal of what is coming ahead concerning next year’s elections. If I can go to Ikotun for my card how many residents from this area will be ready and willing to travel to as far as Ikotun, all in the name of collecting their PVCs?”
The situation is not different at Agege Local Government Area where some of the intending voters who thronged the LGA Secretariat said they were turned back and asked to check back next week.
A middle-aged woman who gave her name as Risikat Oseni told Sunday Sun that she was told to check back next week.
“I will check back next week as they said, but if they do not bring it then, it will be clear that I have tried my best,” she said, resigning to fate.
A visit by Sunday Sun to Ikotun Local Government headquarters where the Ikotun INEC office is located proved otherwise. Regularly, there was heavy human movement within the area, all in a bid for the people to pick up their PVCs. Careful observation showed a hitch-free exercise where most people with comprehensive documents picked their voting power at ease. Stephen Emelokwu, a driver, was glad to pick his card.
He said: “I dropped something because what I dropped for them cannot buy this my PVC, my voting power, So I am very happy that I have it now; I have never bothered to register in all my life, but now, I have the power to vote the candidate of my choice.”
But what looked like a chaotic situation arose, where individuals who did not come with the correct paper for collection, those who came with transfer documents, those who mixed up their local government areas and did not know where to get their PVCs from are also around. But the INEC officials were polite in their explanations to these set of people.
Mrs Agnes Igbanoi brought her documents to pick up her PVC at Ikotun, but explanations were given to her with facts to go to Bolade-Oshodi and pick up her PVC.
In the same vein, at Ejigbo LCDA, under Oshodi-Isolo LGA, the same hitch-free situation met the collectors with a few issues here and there which were also sorted out.
In a disclosure, last month to the media, INEC Public Affairs Officer in Lagos State, Mrs Adenike Oriowo said that 37,832 of 60,370 newly printed Permanent Voter Cards for new registrants were still uncollected in Lagos State, six months after its release.
Oriowo noted that so many old PVCs were still awaiting their owners to collect them at the 20 local government areas offices of INEC in the state.
She expressed dissatisfaction with the poor turnout and apathy of many electorate to the collection of PVCs, urging them not to wait until the last minute rush before the 2023 general election.
She said that the statistics as of October 21 showed that INEC in Lagos State had received 6,570,291 PVCs from the commission’s national headquarters prior to the 2019 general elections.
“Old PVCs collected up till October 21 was 5,644,239, while the total uncollected old PVCs as at the same time was 926,052.
“The new PVCs received from INEC headquarters earlier this year was 60,370, while only 22,538 were collected as of October 21,” she said.
She added that the overall total PVCs received from the INEC national headquarters was 6,630,661.
While the overall total PVCs collected by their owners as of October 21 was 5,666,777, the overall uncollected was 963, 884.
The past one-week has presented a lot of challenges to the electoral body and the need to rise above board. It has also raised concerns about how not to treat registrants who came to collect their PVCs.
