by Godwin Akanfe

The Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) has blamed the inability of a lot of Lagosians to pick up their Permanent Voter Cards, PVC, on the late supply of materials. As a result, the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Adekunle Ogunmola, has announced the extension of the issuance of PVCs in the state by one day.

Ogunmola said that the collection of the cards and Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) would be extended to make up for the delay.

“Most of the materials that we need are supplied by the headquarters and without receiving those materials there is very little we can do,” Ogunmola said, “So, we got some of these materials very late and the materials will require printing and they are quite voluminous. The register of voters of 4.8 million people is what has caused the delay.”

Admitting that the delay was entirely INEC’s fault, Ogunmola promised to extend collection time to 5 pm for the remaining days of collection, in addition to the day’s extension.

He further assured that INEC would ensure that it captured the data of every eligible voter in all the local government areas in order to guarantee a free and fair election.

“The staggered arrangement of distribution: 11 local governments first, then the remaining nine local governments last. To me, it is a blessing in disguise for Lagos state, because it will afford us the opportunity of concentrating on those 11. We will do the PVC and CVR for those eleven,” Ogunmola said, “After the conclusion of that, we know that we have to concentrate on the remaining nine. So, that will ensure that every eligible voter is captured on our data base. That is the intention of INEC, to ensure that every eligible voter has a permanent voter card.”

YEditor