Declare Public Holidays For PVC Collection, Ohanaeze Tells Governors

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Tuesday, appealed to Southeast governors to emulate their Ebonyi State counterpart, Engr Dave Umahi, by declaring public holidays to enable people of the region to collect their permanent voters’ cards ahead of the 2023 elections.

Gov Umahi, who is the chairman of the Southeast Governors’ Forum, had declared a two-day public holiday to compel all the public servants and other duty-hindered persons in the state to obtain their PVCs.

THE WHISTLER reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) extended the collection till Sunday, January 29, 2023 due to popular demands and the avalanche of uncollected PVCs across the country.

Ohanaeze made the call in a release by its national publicity secretary, Dr Alex Chiedozie Ogbonnia.

The statement read in part, “While commending Governor Umahi for his pragmatic sensitization of the Ebonyi populace towards the forthcoming elections, Ohanaeze Ndigbo calls on all the governors of Ohanaeze states to apply the Ebonyi paradigm in their respective jurisdictions.

“Similarly, the Association of South East Town Unions (ASETU) led by Chief Emeka Diwe is also requested to deploy their grassroots prowess to implement a policy of ‘no pvc, no community rights’ in all the Igbo communities across the entire Igboland.

“Emphasis is hereby made that no genuine Igbo should allow local, private or selfish interests to override the Igbo collective interests. Every Igbo should therefore realize that the PVC and voting on the election day are the sine qua non for the actualisation of the Igbo collective desideratum for 2023.”

Ohanaeze expressed concern that ‘there are thousands of permanent voters’ cards that are yet to be collected by their rightful owners’, adding that, “It is the voting behaviour of the group that determines the electoral outcomes at the polls.”

The pan-Igbo group said it was ‘very strange that an Igbo of whatever class or creed will be reminded on the need to vote in the forthcoming general elections’.