According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 78, 989 registered eligible residents in Yobe State are yet to get their permanent voter cards (PVCs).
Abatcha Bukar, the State Administrative Secretary of the Commission, revealed this during a dialogue with political parties and other key players in Damaturu.
Bukar stated that more over 60,000 were left over from the 2019 registration process that were not collected, while the remainder were those recently provided by the commission’s national office.
“In 2019, we registered 72, 157 eligible voters out of which only 16, 446 collected their PVCs, while the remaining are still lying in our offices across the 17 local governments and the state headquarters.
“As we are talking to you, all those who registered during the first batch of the voter registration exercise specifically, from June 2021 to January 2022 their PVCs are with us, ready for collection”, he said.
According to the Administrative Secretary, people who registered between January 2022 and June 2022 would receive their PVCs by the end of October 2022.
Bukar, on the other hand, voiced concern over registered voters’ incapacity to get their PVCs and asked politicians to educate their supporters about the need of collecting their cards on or before the general elections.
He also urged the media and civil society organisations (CSOs) to help educate the people about the importance of PVCs.
