LAGOS: About 1 Million Residents May Not Vote In 2023 As PVCs Abandoned At INEC Offices

No fewer than 963,884 printed Permanent Voter Cards are still awaiting collection across offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Lagos State.

The uncollected PVCs include 37,832 out of the 60,370 PVCs that were printed after the recently concluded Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise in the state.

According to INEC’s Public Affairs Officer in Lagos State, Mrs. Adenike Oriowo, there has been a poor turnout of voters coming forward to collect their PVCs in the state.

Oriowo said data as of October 21 showed that the Lagos INEC received 6,570,291 PVCs from the commission’s national headquarters before the 2019 general election.

“Old PVCs collected up till Oct. 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 were 60,370 while only 22,538 were collected as of October 21.

“Total uncollected new PVCs as of October 21, was 37,832,” She said told NAN.

She said that the total PVCs received from the INEC national office now stands at 6,630,661 while the overall total PVCs collected by their owners as of October 21 was 5,666,777 and overall uncollected was 963,884.

THE WHISTLER recalls that the Lagos INEC resident electoral commissioner, Olusegun Agbaje, had last month lamented the high number of PVCs that were awaiting collection by their owners in the state.

As of September 5, Agbaje said uncollected old PVCs in the state was 928,362 while new ones stood at 21,352.