A senator representing Lagos Central Senatorial District, Oluremi Tinubu, has urged Lagos State residents to ensure they collect their permanent voter’s cards (PVCs), to enable them participate in the 2019 general election.
She made the call following revelations from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that over 7,800,000 PVCs are yet to be collected nationwide.
About 1,400,000 of these are from Lagos State alone.
Prior to the 2015 elections, INEC introduced the use of smart card readers. This necessitated issuance of PVCs as part of the identification and authentication process.
After the 2015 elections, about 12 million PVCs had remained in the electoral body’s custody.
“With previous elections, Nigerians developed voter apathy due to a distrust of the system. The 2015 elections taught us, however, that as individuals, our votes count. Thus, we must rise as citizens to fulfil our civic responsibility and ensure accountability in governance,” Tinubu said.
Towards the 2019 elections, INEC has released modalities for ongoing continuous voters’ registration. These centres open from 9:00am to 3:00pm daily. But, Senator Tinubu pleaded that the period should be extended; and should include weekends to allow people who are unable to visit the centres during work hours do so during the weekend.
She urged INEC to ensure it has adequate resources to make the process quick and easy.