The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has lamented that over 241, 715 Permanent Voter Cards are yet to be collected by the voters in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states with two weeks to the October 9, 2023 deadline issued for the collection of the cards ahead of the November 11 off-cycle Governorship polls in the three states.

The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, and the Kogi State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr Gabriel Longpet, on Thursday, September 28, 2023, both affirmed in separate interviews that there there would be no extension after the October 9 deadline.

In Kogi State, 107,715 voter cards are awaiting collection while 134,000 are yet to be claimed by prospective voters in Imo State. However, the figure of unclaimed PVCs cards in Bayelsa State was unavailable.

The Electoral Commission has said ‘it will not extend the PVCs collection in the states and admonished registered voters not to delay in picking up their cards”.

The election body cautioned concerned electorates against waiting till the last minute to collect their PVCs.

The INEC had scheduled the Governorship elections in the three states on November 11, 2023, with 18 parties fielding candidates.

INEC, at its regular meeting held on June 6, 2023, the commission approved the final list of candidates for the three off-cycle governorship elections and also uploaded it to its website and social media platforms.

“Apart from the 27 local government area offices, INEC has also created some centres for PVC collection for Registration Areas that have more than 1,000 uncollected PVCs. Remember that PVCs cannot be collected by proxy and they must be exchanged with the Temporary Voter Cards,’’ she stated.

“INEC has gone a step further to gather the phone numbers of owners of uncollected PVCs in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi to send bulk SMS to them,’’ Agu added, assuring that the commission was fully prepared for the election.

She revealed that all non-sensitive materials had been received and would be distributed to the various local government areas appropriately.

“The Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security of which the police is the lead agency is on top of the security situation and shall draw up security architecture for the exercise,’’ she further explained.

The INEC’s Public Relations officer in the state, Chinenye Osuji, said that the commission was encouraging people to collate their PVCs.

“As of Wednesday last week, a little over 134,000 persons have yet to collect their Permanent Voter Cards. We don’t know what the issue is but we are encouraging people to collect their PVCs,” she elaborated.

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The INEC office in Bayelsa State declined to precise the number of unclaimed PVCs when contacted on Sunday.

The commission’s Head of Department, Voter Education, Publicity, Gender and Inclusivity in Bayelsa, Mr Wilfred Ifogah, said the uncollected PVCs in its Yenagoa office were from the previous exercise.

He said people currently collecting their PVCs included those who registered newly, those who could not pick up their PVCs after they transferred their PVCs, and those who lost their voter cards.

Ifogah said, “When you talk about collected and uncollected PVCs in the state, why I don’t want to give those figures is that it won’t add up to anything because what we have are uncollected PVCs from the previous exercise. It’s not like they brought anything new.

‘’Moreso, the PVCs are not just for people who registered newly but it has to do with both those who registered newly and unable to pick them and those who requested for a reprint of their PVCs, and those who did transfer whose cards have come in.

“So, from the overall statistics, if we really want to know those who have collected, we have to wait for the end of the exercise to know those that have collected, who registered newly.

“But right now, everyone picking involves those who registered newly, those who were unable to pick up their own when they did transfer, and those who lost their PVCs. Right now, I don’t have an idea of the total uncollected PVCs.”

He, however, added that the commission would not extend the October 9 deadline for registration and collection of PVCs.