THE Independent National Electoral Commission would begin distribution of permanent voters cards at the registration areas/wards level on Friday.
This was disclosed in a statement on Thursday by the spokesperson of the commission, Festus Okoye.
According to the statement, the development followed the meeting of Administrative Secretaries and Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) from the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory in November.
Part of the statement read, “At the retreat, the Commission finalised the procedure as well as the timetable for collection of PVCs and consequently the collection of PVCs commenced in all the 774 Local Government Offices of the Commission throughout the Federation.
“The Commission also resolved to devolve PVC collection to the 8,809 Registration Areas/Wards from Friday 6th to Sunday 15th January 2023.”
“The devolution of PVC collection to the wards commences tomorrow 6th January 2023, and all validly registered voters who are yet to collect their PVCs are encouraged to seize the opportunity of the devolution to the wards to do so.
“After the 15th of January 2023, the exercise will revert to the Local Government Offices of the Commission until 22nd January 2023. All eligible and valid registrants can collect their PVCs from 9.00am to 3.00pm daily, including Saturdays and Sundays.
“All those that applied for replacement of lost, damaged, or defaced PVCs can collect their PVCs at the Registration Area/wards during this period and the same thing applies to those that registered prior to the 2019 general election and are yet to collect their cards.
“The PVCs of those that applied for transfer are available for collection in the Local Governments and Registration Areas where they intend to vote and not in the State or Local Government where they carried out the transfer.
The Commission stated that it’s working to ensure that the process is simple and hitch-free for Nigerian.
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.