Nigerians battle to collect PVCs in Lagos

Barely three days to the deadline for the collection of Permanent Voter’s Cards ahead of the 2023 general elections, have some Nigerians in Lagos registered their frustration over the poor approach by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the exercise.

This was as the electoral commission had announced February 5 as the deadline for the collection of PVCs.

In a viral video on Friday, most voters were seen stranded and complaining bitterly about the inability of INEC to coordinate the exercise effectively.

Affected registrants who spoke in the video conveyed their frustration about the development, as they were desperate to beat the deadline.

One of the affected persons said: “It is only like three or four percent of people that got theirs. The remaining ones are not found. The first set of people that went inside, only four were able to get their PVCs.”

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Another person, who alleged INEC staff didn’t allow them to have access to their PVCs, complained: “Where are the PVCs. Just bring them out. We’ll sort ourselves out. You just have to bring some INEC staff out here to coordinate the process.”

A woman also noted: “What we want is that they should stop collecting names and go into their secret room only to come out and say not found. What we want for them to do, because we have three days left, is they should bring out all the PVCs, arrange people based on their wards and call their names.”

A Labour Party chieftain and renowned political economist, Pat Utomi, who stormed the office in relation to the development, faulted the approach used by INEC in the exercise.

Utomi accused the electoral commission of incompetence and lamented the needless stress Nigerians were made to pass through in the process.

“This can’t be a democracy. If INEC cannot have the competence to do a simple thing like capture people’s biometrics and give the cards that own them, then something is fundamentally wrong. How can we trust that organization to conduct free and fair elections?” Utomi asked.