Politics
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The Independent National Electoral Commission on Sunday, March 8, extended the collection period of the permanent voter cards to March 22, to allow eligible voters to collect participate in the general elections
| By Olu Ojewale | Mar. 16, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT |
THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Sunday, March 8, extended the deadline for the collection of permanent voter cards, PVCs, across the country by two weeks. According to a terse statement signed by Kayode Idowu, chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, the collection exercise which should have terminated on Sunday, March 8, would now go on until March 22.
“This latest extension offers the last opportunity for duly registered persons to collect their PVCs before the general elections scheduled for March 28th and April 11th, 2015. The INEC hereby calls on registered persons that are yet to collect their PVCs to use this last opportunity in doing so, in order to participate in the forthcoming general elections,” the statement said.
The extension of deadline for the collection of the PVCs has been hailed across the party affiliations. Speaking on a radio programme on Monday, March 9, Onyekachi Ubani, a lawyer and former chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association of Nigeria, NBA, Ikeja branch, Lagos, commended the INEC, saying it was a good development to give those who were yet to collect their cards the opportunity to do so. “It is a welcome development; it should be welcome by everybody,” Ubani said.
Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, described it was a welcome development, adding that: “Hopefully this extension will enable those who have been unable to collect their PVCs to do so. We also hope that, it will no longer be possible for people to say they cannot collect their PVCs.”
In the same vein, Olisa Metuh, national publicity secretary of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said the extension would provide the opportunity for those who were yet to pick their cards to do so. “The extension is good. It will enable more eligible voters pick up their cards,” Metuh was quoted as saying.
The INEC had on Wednesday, March 4, announced that 80.24 per cent of the PVCs had been given to their owners. The figure indicated that 55,232,874 out of the 68,833,476 registered voters had obtained their cards
Statistics said that out of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, only Ogun State was yet to reach 50 percent collection level as only 47.27 percent of the registered voters had picked their cards.
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Tags: All Progressives Congress APC Federal Capital Territory INEC Kayode Idowu Lai Mohammed National Electoral Commission NBA Nigerian Bar Association of Nigeria Olisa Metuh Onyekachi Ubani PDP Peoples Democratic Party Permanent Voter Cards PVCs
