The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ondo State, on Wednesday, said that 296,965 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) printed were yet to be collected in the state by their owners.
This was disclosed by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Dr Rufus Akeju, in Akure, the state capital, who urged the owners of these PVCs to come forward for them than to engage in double registration.
He said: “The CVR exercise is now in its fourth phase which commenced on April 11 and will end on June 30, 2022. As of May 30, 2022, the registration figure stands at 123,981.
“A total of 21,749 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) were received by the state for the 1st and 2nd phases of the CVR Exercise and are currently being distributed at our various Local Government Area Offices. Those who registered during these phases are to avail themselves of this opportunity to collect their PVCs.
“However, 296,965 previously printed PVCs uncollected are still available for collection by the rightful owners at the various Local Government INEC Offices.”
Akeju stated that the online pre-registration exercise has ended on the 30th of May, 2022 and the registration exercise itself will come to an end on June 30, 2022.
He, however, called on eligible Nigerians who are 18 years and above but have not registered before to come out and register since there will be no shift in the closing date.
He said the CVR exercise also provides opportunities for transfer of voters’ card, replacement of loss and defaced permanent voters’ cards and update of voters’ details.
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Encouraging members of the public to come for the exercise, he said, “we want to sound a note of warning that registering more than once is a criminal offence under the law punishable by prison term of not more than 12 months or a fine of N500,000 or both. Section 12 subsections 2 and 3 of the Electoral act.
“At the end of the CVR exercise a nation-wide Automatic Biometric Identification System (ABIS) will be run on all registrations and those who register more than once will be fished out, their names expunged from the voters’ register and be prosecuted.”
On gender quality and the electoral process, Akeju said, “our staff have been going on several workshops, and seminars on this issue.
“These workshops/training and capacity building workshops are being organised by the Commission in collaboration with our development partners such as IFES, UNDP, IRI and some Gender/PWDs based civil society organisations.
“An implementation planning workshop/data disaggregation training for gender desk officers was organized in May, 24th -26th 2022 at Ikeja Lagos to review the last INEC Gender Policy (IGP) in view of adopting a more robust IGP. This is to give women more participation in the 2023 general elections.”
While encouraging youths to engage and take an active interest in the political process, he noted that the commission in collaboration with Yiaga Africa organized a 2-days laboratory training in the state on the 27th – 28th of May 2022.
He said the training workshop was organised to look into sensitising the youths in the state to take active participation in the electoral process, especially the 2023 general election, saying that the commission has also embarked on series of steps to include more people with disabilities (PWD) in the electoral process.
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