The government of Yobe State has declared Thursday and Friday as work free days to allow residents of the state ample opportunity to collect their permanent voter cards, PVCs.

In a press statement issued on Wednesday by the special adviser to the governor on Press Affairs and Information, Abdullah Bego, the state government said that public holiday was to enable workers to collect their PVCs where they registered to vote.

“His Excellency the governor urges all workers and people across the state who have not yet collected their PVCs to use the period to collect their cards as a step towards exercising their civic duty to vote during the forthcoming elections”, Bego said in the statement.

He said that business and commercial activities will continue as normal during the two day break, adding that banks and other financial institutions operating in the state are also permitted to open for business during the holiday.

The Independent National Electoral Commission announced on Tuesday that it had distributed 80 per cent of the PVCs for registered voters in Yobe State. The commission’s spokesman in the state, Bagudu Nma, said that distribution was fast tracked by the setting up of collection centres in all the 17 local government areas in the state.

Nma also stated that adequate preparations had been made for Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs to exercise their franchise in the two local governments affected.