THE Niger State Independent Electoral Commission (NSIEC) has said that over 1.4 million Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in 11 local governments of the state have not been claimed by their owners.
The affected local governments with the unclaimed PVCs are Borgu, Bosso, Chanchaga, Gurara, Kontagora, Munya, Paikoro, Rafi, Rijau, Suleja and Tafa. Chanchaga, Tafa and Suleja lead with 33,316, 21,738 and 20,682 unclaimed PVCs.
Chairman of the commission, Alhaji Aminu Baba, made the disclosure during a stakeholders meeting between the commission and political parties in Minna, the state capital, according to a press release issued by the commission’s Information Officer, Attahiru Tauheed Alaba.
Baba said the commission would soon commence the continuous voters registration exercise, stressing that the commission was in custody of the unclaimed 1,456,95 PVCs.
He said the commission was presently in consultation with the Niger State office of INEC on how to facilitate the distribution of the unclaimed PVCs at the polling unit levels of the affected local government areas.
He further announced that the commission had received notification of death of three councillors within the last four months, and the demand for by-elections to fill the vacancies.
The commission’s chairman assured that his administration would carry along every stakeholder to avoid misinformation capable of bringing distrust in service delivery.
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