Etiosa, Alimosho lead in PVC collection in Lagos

Eti-Osa and Alimosho local government areas are leading other LGAs in Lagos state in the number of Permanent Voters Cards so far collected in the state, findings by National Daily have revealed.

According to the findings, residents of Eti-Osa have so far collected 9, 502 while Alimosho came second with 5,616 PVCs collected. Ikeja is trailing third with 2,039 and Oshodi –Isolo is fourth with 1,646.

Lagos Island has the lowest with only 406 PVCs collected so far, followed by Shomolu with 465, Ibeju-Lekki with 511.

In the data by the Independent National Electoral Commission, out of the fresh 32,158 PVCs collected in the state, 16,943 are male, while 15,215 are female.

In total, 5,676,858 PVCs have been collected out of 6,630,661 received in the state from 2011 to 2021.

Meanwhile, this is still less than the 7,060,195 registered voters in the state released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In the list made available to political parties yesterday, Lagos State has the highest number of registered voters with 7,060,195, followed by Kano State with 5,921,370.

The list showed that INEC registered 93, 469,008 voters for the general polls.

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The voter register also shows that Katsina State has 3,516,719 registered voters; Kebbi, 2,032,041; Kogi, 1,932,654; Kwara, 1,695,927; Nasarawa 1,899,244; Niger, 2,698,344; Ogun, 2,688,305; Ondo, 1,991,344; Osun, 1,954,800; Oyo, 3,276,675; Plateau, 2,789,528; Rivers, 3,537,190; Sokoto, 2,172,056; Taraba, 2,022,374; Yobe, 1,485,146, and Zamfara State, 1,485,146.

Others are Abia 2,120,808; Adamawa, 2,196,566; Akwa Ibom, 2,357,418; Anambra, 2,656,437; Bauchi, 2,749,268; Bayelsa, 1,056,862; Benue 2,513,281; Borno, 2,513,281; Cross River, 1,766,466; Delta 3,221,697; Ebonyi, 1,597,646; Edo, 2,501,081; Ekiti, 987,647; Enugu, 2,112,793; FCT 1,570,307 Gombe, 1,575,794; Imo, 2,419,922; Jigawa, 2,351,298, and Kaduna, 4,335,208.

Mr Olusegun Agbaje, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) commended all stakeholders for collaboration in the quest to build a sustainable democratic culture in Nigeria, noting that the commission was doing everything possible to deliver an acceptable and credible elections everyone would be proud of in 2023.

“These uncollected cards and the expected PVCs for fresh registrants, transfer or review from January to July will be available for collection in all INEC offices across the state.”

According to him, for the avoidance of doubt, anyone without PVC cannot vote in the 2023 general elections in line with the Electoral Act 2022.

He said that INEC had fixed the collection of PVCs from Dec. 12 to Jan. 22, 2023 at its Local Government Area offices and from Jan. 6, 2023 to Jan. 15, 2023 at the ward levels.

The commissioner said the deadline of Jan. 22 for collection of PVCs became imperative to enable INEC to compute the polling unit by polling unit records of PVCs collected.