The Chairman of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria(PFN) in Cross River, Dr Lawrence Ekwok, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend the June 30 deadline for the registration of Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC).
Ekwok, who made the call on Wednesday in Calabar during an interaction with newsmen in his office, said that if the deadline was not extended, millions of Nigerians would be disenfranchised in 2023.
According to him, some registration centers in Calabar have over 500 persons in a queue waiting for the registration, hence the need to extend the registration exercise.
He observed that INEC was under pressure because the commission never expected such large turn out of Nigerians for the PVC registration across the country.
“INEC has to extend the deadline for the registration of PVC so that millions of Nigerians won’t be disenfranchised in 2023.
“We still have about six months to the 2023 polls; INEC should not be in a rush to end the registration. In Calabar, some centers have over 500 people queuing for the PVC,” he said.
Ekwok also said that PFN was mobilising its members across the country to register and get their PVC’s.
“The national leadership of PFN has adopted June 26, as PVC Sunday. All members of the church are expected to attend service with their PVC’s.
“The idea is to help us take statistics of our members who have the PVC’s because we are going to be fully involved in the electioneering process to choose our leaders in 2023.
“We are going to access and talk with the presidential and governorship candidates to know what they have for the masses and their blueprints for economic development.
“After this is done, we are going to persuade our members to vote in one direction. The good thing about the Pentecostal churches is that our members listen to the leadership,” he said.
The chairman also cautioned Nigerians to desist from vote buying, stressing that “no one should be influenced by money to sell his or her vote”.
He gave assurance that the Pentecostal churches across the country would make a difference with their votes in 2023.