The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has lamented the approximately 20 million uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
Mohammed Haruna, National Commissioner of INEC for the Federal Capital Territory, Nasarawa, Kaduna, and Plateau States, announced this on Tuesday at the launch of a campaign to increase PVC collection and participation in the ongoing continuous voter registration exercise.
According to INEC statistics, more than 84 million PVCs were printed in 2019.
The INEC Commissioner explained that over 72 million voter cards were collected, while over 11 million remained uncollected.
The South-West had the highest number of uncollected PVCs with more than 3.4 million, followed by the North-West with more than 1.9 million and the South-South with more than 1.7 million.
While the North-Central had approximately 1.5 million uncollected voter identification cards, the South-East recorded over 1.4 million, the North-East had over 800,000, and the FCT had approximately 318,000 uncollected voter identification cards.
“Ahead of the 2019 general elections, there were 84 million PVCs. I think close to 20 million (PVCs have not been collected),” he said.
“It may be a small percentage but in terms of absolute number, that’s huge. 20 million is probably more than the voters of so many West African countries put together.”
To change the narrative, Nessaction, a civil society organisation is launching a Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and the PVC collection campaign in collaboration with INEC, United Nations Development Programme and YIAGA Africa to drive collection in the FCT and Nasarawa State.
In April, INEC announced a total of over 1.8 million newly PVCs, comprising over 1.3 million cards of genuine, new registrants and 464,340 PVCs for verified applicants for transfer or replacement of cards were ready for collection.