deadline for collection of Permanent Voter Cards across the country
till March 22.
With this development, INEC has extended the collection deadline which
was fixed for March 8 with additional two weeks.
The commission in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by the Chief
Press Secretary to the chairman of the commission, Mr. Kayode Idowu,
said the latest extension offered the last opportunity for duly
registered persons to collect their PVCs before the general elections
scheduled for March 28 and April 11.
"INEC hereby calls on registered persons that are yet to collect their
PVCs to use this last opportunity in doing so, in order to participate
in the forthcoming general elections," the statement read.
In a related development, the Ondo State Resident Electoral
Commissioner, Mr Olusegun Agbaje on Sunday dismissed the speculation
making the round that the National Electoral Commissioners and the
State Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs of the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, had resolved to pass a vote of no
Confidence on the Chairman of the Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega
to pave the way for his removal from office.
Speaking with news men in Abuja yesterday, Agbaje declared that the
speculation was the handiwork of lazy politicians who were out to
distract the attention of Prof Jega, discredit the Commission and
cause confusion in the land ahead of the elections.
According to Agbaje,"As we speak, as the Ondo state resident electoral
commissioner, I'm not aware of any plan to pass a vote of no
confidence on our chairman, Professor Jega by national and resident
electoral commissioners as being alleged in some quarters, it is the
handwork of a few lazy politicians, they just want to cause confusion
in the land and the prayers and supports of all Nigerians they will
not succeed".
"Even if the national and resident electoral commissioners are to meet
today to vote on our chairman on any issue especially the 2015 general
elections, I'm sure he will get nothing less than 80 per cent votes in
his favour because he is a team player any time any day, Nigeria is
blessed to have such a man as the chairman of INEC at this point in
time", he stated.
According to him," As a team player who knows his onions,Jega consults
widely at all times on all issues, if he consults with the national
electoral commissioners on any issue and he still needs additional
inputs, he will quickly summon all the state RECs for further
consultation as well as other stakeholders including the leaders of
the registered political parties, civil society organisations,the
national assembly, the security agencies, the press and others
depending on the issue involved".
Speaking on the mock election and test running of the card readers'
machines conducted in some states of the federation last Saturday by
the Commission , Agbaje described the exercise as a huge success and
urged Nigerians to shun politics and sentiments and embrace the new
technology which he said would eliminate all sorts of known electoral
malpractices at the polls.
According to him, "There is nothing to fear about the introduction of
the new technology, I supervised the exercise in Lagos and we saw it
all, everything went on smoothly, in fact there was a man who came
from another area not covered by the test running to where we operated
the card Reader and his card was rejected out rightly, that is extent
people will go to discredit all what INEC is doing to deliver a
credible election for the nation".
On the level of collection and distribution of PVCs in Ondo State,
Agbaje disclosed that INEC had given out 1,105,709 PVCs representing
74 percent collection.
According to him, "We still have 388,460 cards or 26 percent of the
total cards in our custody as of last Friday; so, we are calling on
those who are yet to collect theirs to take advantage of the recent
extension of collection deadline extension to do so".
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