A number of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) have been declared unprinted by INEC officials in different INEC collection centres across Lagos.
IkejaBird gathered that the unprinted PVCs were owned by eligible Nigerians and as election draws nearer voters are now very concerned that they may be disenfranchised.
The affected voters told IkejaBird that INEC had consistently displayed and publicized only uncollected PVCs, indicating that there is more beyond the press release.
Voters Lament at Anifowese Primary School, Ikeja
IkejaBird correspondent visited Anifowese Primary School in Ikeja where the PVC collection centre is located to observe the process.
Although there was no crowd, there were quite a number of complaints from people at the centre.
Stephen Adeniran, a Nigerian voter from Lagos, said he had been visiting INEC collection centre at Ikeja local government for over two weeks.
Adeniran said he was told by INEC officials to return after the general election to get his PVC: “They said it was omitted during the printing process,” he said.
Another eligible voter, Elfrida Obiora was candid about her feelings, as she revealed that she was not happy about the process at all.
Obiora was at the centre with her friend. She told IkejaBird that she registered together with her friend a few weeks ago. Although, she is yet to collect her PVC her friend has been able to do so.
“I was told that my application process was rejected and I didn’t even know until when I came to the collection center,” Elfrida said.
Also, our correspondent gathered that voters who misplaced their registration slip could not access their Permanent Voters Card(PVC) because it’s difficult searching for it. This will further delay those who had theirs in handy.
According to INEC, a total of 12,298,944 Nigerians successfully completed the registration as new voters.
However, INEC had stated that 2,780,756 (22.6%) are ineligible registrants and have been invalidated from the record due to the following issues: double or multiple registration, underage persons and outrightly fake registrations that fail to meet the commissions rules.
Quite a number of Nigerians fall under this category which made their registration unsuccessful and as a result disenfranchised.
IkejaBird spoke with an INEC official who stated that a lot of people did not properly submit their online application for PVC, so the system automatically deleted the application.
