A total of 756, 732 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) remain uncollected in the state, with Ibadan North at 73,602 being the local government area with the highest number of uncollected PVCs.
Resident Electoral Commissioner, Oyo State, Mr Mutiu Agboke, made this disclosure during a conversation with members of the state House of Assembly, led by Speaker, Honourable Olagunju Ojo, at the Assembly’s caucus room, on Monday.
Noting INEC’s worry over uncollected cards in some states of the South West, Agboke said it had, therefore, become expedient for legislators to mobilise their constituents towards the collection of more than registration for their PVCs.
Agboke said the situation was epitomised by the fact that more than 200,000 Ekiti residents failed to collect their PVCs, which he said, if collected, could have swung the election in another way.
Details of uncollected PVCs In Oyo state further show 64,896 not received in Ibadan South East local government area, 63,501 in Ibadan South West, 43,323 in Ibadan North East, 42,748 in Egbeda, 36,769 in Akinyele, 35,860 in Ibadan North West, 32,112 in Oluyole and 31,244 in Saki West.
He restated the resolve of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to suspend Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) on 17th August 2018, till after the 2019 elections, to allow the commission focus on production of cards for new registrants to participate in the forthcoming general elections.
Agboke decried reported instances of electorates getting money before voting, as in the just concluded Ekiti governorship election, as ridiculing the process, the power of the PVC and their integrity.
ALSO READ: Olusola rejects Ekiti election results, says ‘I won 70 per cent of lawful votes’
He stressed the need for the interface between INEC, politicians, other election stakeholders and Nigerians, in general, on seeing the wrong in exchanging money for people’s votes.
“Henceforth in Nigeria, elections in Nigeria, like the forthcoming 2019 elections, PVCs will be very powerful. It is so powerful that if not well handled, the holder will be messed up on election day. There are so many components in the card that one cannot afford to toy with; it has an antenna and other components. One cannot afford to put it in one’s back pocket.
“It is a civic responsibility for anybody to have it. It is an instrument to tongue lash any politician and make the politician do the needful. If you don’t have it if you have it and sell it or you collect money to exercise your franchise, you have ridiculed your integrity, ridiculed the process, ridiculed the power of PVC and we are against it. INEC is saying no PVC, no voting,” Agboke said.
In his remarks, Speaker of the Assembly, Ojo urged fellow lawmakers to speak to their constituents on the need to collect their PVCs.
Especially, he tasked INEC to carry out more sensitisation campaigns to educate and educate Nigerians on the need to collect their PVCs.
and then