The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Ebonyi has announced that it has commenced distribution of over 23000 permanent voter’s card (PVCs) to their owners in the state.
Dr Joseph Chukwuemeka, INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ebonyi disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abakaliki.
According to him, the PVCs being distributed are from the registration done during the first and second quarter phases of the registration exercise.
He called on prospective voters who registered during the period to go the various INEC local government area offices to collect their voter’s card adding that collection would not be done by proxy.
“He said: “We took delivery of 23248 permanent voter’s card from the INEC’s headquarters, Abuja on April 20 and arrangements have been concluded to commence distribution.
“The voter cards are from the first and second quarter registrations that started in June 28, 2021 and ended around February 14.
“I want to use this opportunity to appeal to all eligible voters who registered within the period to avail themselves the opportunity and collect their own,” Chukwuemeka said.
The REC who warned prospective registrants to avoid the temptations of double registration noted that the state recorded about 34,980 invalid registration during the first and second quarter registrations.
“I have in so many fora cautioned against double registration. INEC of today via quite a different body in terms of transparency and we are equal to task when it comes to exhibiting transparency.
“We have improved our technology and registration devices deployed by the commission for this registration are capable of detecting multiple registrations and invalidate any double registrations.
“If you do any double registration our machine will detect that you have registered twice; if register two times we will take only one; if you register 20 or 100 times we will take only one entry,” the REC added.
Chukwuemeka who gave statistical break down of the first and second quarter registrations said that the commission registered over 58, 228 voters adding that 23248 were valid registrations while 34,980 were invalid registration representing 60.1 per cent of the total number of registrations within the period.
“INEC will only select one out of the many number of registrations a prospective voter does hence, I enjoin our people in Ebonyi to desist from double registration because if you register 1000 times, our machine will only take one and void the rest,” he added.
The REC also announced that the commission has began an off-line registration exercise aimed at capturing prospective voters living in areas without effective network coverage.
He said that the commission had deployed 14 machines to each of the 13 LGAs in the state and INEC state headquarters for the purpose of the exercise.
He said that the commission was poised to ensure that every eligible voter was registered irrespective of where the person was residing.
“The off-line registration is a process whereby people in a remote area where we do not have effective network are csptured; the machine and soft-ware meant for such areas have been provided.
“We have activated the process and machines have been deployed to the various remote areas where they will be used to register thepeople,” he said.
