The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed worry over the low collection of permanent voter cards (PVCs) by residents of Lagos state.
This was disclosed by the state’s resident electoral commissioner, Olusegun Agbaje, spoke on Thursday at the eighth annual constituency stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos.
The meeting was organised by the Lagos State House of Assembly to stress the importance of PVC collection ahead of the 2023 general election.
Agbaje was represented by Emmanuel Adegboyega, an INEC official, during the meeting held at Eti-Osa II constituency.
He said over one million PVCs are yet to be collected, adding that only 6,382 out of 34,242 PVCs were picked up after the continuous voter registration (CVR) in the first and second quarters of 2022.
“The low rate of PVC collection in Lagos state is worrisome as only 6,382 PVCs out of 34,242 received from the commission’s headquarters for the first and second quarters CVR had been collected by their owners,” Agbaje said.
“This is just 18.6 percent; similarly, for the old PVCs, a total of 1,091,157 are still uncollected by their owners.
“Also, voter apathy that has characterised past elections in the state where only 1,156,590 out of 6,570,291 registered voters, that is, 17.6 per cent participated in the 2019 general election in the state.”
