Apparently living up to its promise to ensure that majority of registered voters are not disenfranchised due to an inability to collect their Permanent Voters Card, PVCs, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has released figures showing that over 75% of the cards have been distributed.
According to the data released by INEC, as at February 17, it had distributed 52.2 million PVCs out of the 68.8 million PVCs produced for registered voters, leaving about 16.6 million PVCs yet uncollected.
The figures released confirm over 90 per cent PVC collection in Zamfara, Nasarawa, Katsina, Jigawa, Kaduna and Gombe states. Tates – Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Kebbi, Sokoto and Taraba have a collection rate of over 80 per cent.
However in states like Rivers, Kano, Yobe, Osun, Plateau, Niger, Kwara, Enugu, Cross Rivers, Benue, Anambra Abia and Borno, the collection rate stands at over 70 per cent.
Ogun State has the worst record of PVC collection in the country with a dismal 46.86 per cent.
Bayelsa, Borno, Eboyin, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Lagos and Oyo have PVC collection rate of over 60 per cent.
It would be recalled that an alarm had been raised in many quarters that many registered voters may end up being disenfranchised in the coming polls due to their inability to collect their PVCs.
The National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, first raised the fear over the disenfranchisement of millions of voters at an event in Chatham House, in the United Kingdom where he suggested that it might be prudent to reschedule the elections to allow many eligible voters to collect their cards.
Dasuki’s comments had sparked a national debate on the pros and cons of postponing the election, also eliciting comments from the international community on the appropriateness of rescheduling the elections.
INEC announced the postponement of the election for six weeks on February 7 giving as the reason a warning by the security forces that they would not be able to guarantee security of the people during the polls.
See table below for details of INEC PVC distribution in all the states as at January 17.
| Total No of Registered Voters | 68,833,476 |
| Total No of PVCs Distributed | 52,275,367 |
| % of PVCs Distributed | 75.94 |
| S/N | States | Number of Registered Voters | Number of Cards Collected by Voters | Remarks % |
| 1 | ABIA | 1,396,162 | 1,115,634 | 79.91 |
| 2 | ADAMAWA | 1,559,012 | 1,328,136 | 85.19 |
| 3 | AKWA-IBOM | 1,680,759 | 1,468,708 | 87.38 |
| 4 | ANAMBRA | 1,963,173 | 1,499,317 | 76.37 |
| 5 | BAUCHI | 2,054,125 | 1,745,441 | 84.97 |
| 6 | BAYELSA | 610,373 | 404,119 | 66.21 |
| 7 | BENUE | 2,015,452 | 1,548,074 | 76.81 |
| 8 | BORNO | 1,934,079 | 1,320,667 | 68.28 |
| 9 | CROSS RIVER | 1,175,623 | 879,249 | 74.79 |
| 10 | DELTA | 2,275,264 | 1,728,524 | 75.97 |
| 11 | EBONYI | 1,074,273 | 714,351 | 66.50 |
| 12 | EDO | 1,779,738 | 1,145,782 | 64.38 |
| 13 | EKITI | 732,021 | 503,431 | 68.77 |
| 14 | ENUGU | 1,429,221 | 1,065,210 | 74.53 |
| 15 | FCT | 881,472 | 541,359 | 61.42 |
| 16 | GOMBE | 1,120,023 | 1,064,577 | 95.05 |
| 17 | IMO | 1,803,030 | 1,252,030 | 69.44 |
| 18 | JIGAWA | 1,831,276 | 1,706,814 | 93.20 |
| 19 | KADUNA | 3,407,222 | 3,133,813 | 91.98 |
| 20 | KANO | 4,975,701 | 3,487,155 | 70.08 |
| 21 | KATSINA | 2,827,943 | 2,620,829 | 92.68 |
| 22 | KEBBI | 1,470,648 | 1,316,656 | 89.53 |
| 23 | KOGI | 1,350,883 | 914,164 | 67.67 |
| 24 | KWARA | 1,142,267 | 843,792 | 73.87 |
| 25 | LAGOS | 5,905,852 | 3,685,322 | 62.40 |
| 26 | NASARAWA | 1,242,667 | 1,196,583 | 96.29 |
| 27 | NIGER | 2,014,317 | 1,413015 | 70.15 |
| 28 | OGUN | 1,829,534 | 747,556 | 40.86 |
| 29 | ONDO | 1,524,655 | 1,071,010 | 70.25 |
| 30 | OSUN | 1,407,107 | 1,012,678 | 71.97 |
| 31 | OYO | 2,415,566 | 1,569,390 | 64.97 |
| 32 | PLATEAU | 2,001,825 | 1,406,528 | 70.26 |
| 33 | RIVERS | 2,537,590 | 1,923,139 | 75.79 |
| 34 | SOKOTO | 1,611,929 | 1,380,840 | 85.66 |
| 35 | TARABA | 1,340,652 | 1,196,583 | 89.25 |
| 36 | YOBE | 1,099,970 | 824,401 | 74.95 |
| 37 | ZAMFARA | 1,495,717 | 1,458,519 | 97.51 |
| TOTAL | 68,833,476 | 52,233,396 | 75,88 |