2023 general election: INEC says over 87 million PVCs collected as Lagos leads

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that 87,209,007 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) have so far been collected across the country ahead of the upcoming 2023 general election.

This was made known on Thursday by the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, during a maiden briefing in the series of his proposed daily media briefing at the national collation centre in Abuja.

Yakubu during the press briefing said while the commission is pleased that the rate of collection is higher than in previous years, there are still many PVCs uncollected.

6.7% of registered voters yet to collect their PVCs

According to data distributed to journalists, out of 93,469,008 registered voters in Nigeria, 87,209,007 voters, representing 93.3% have collected their PVCs, while 6,259,229 voters representing 6.7% are yet to collect their PVCs.

The data also shows that Lagos leads in the number of collected PVCs with 6,214,970, followed by Kano with 5,594,193, and Kaduna with 4,164, 473.

Meanwhile, the states with the highest number of uncollected PVCs include Lagos – 845,225, Oyo – 515,254, and Ogun – 410,281.

The INEC chairman further revealed that a total of 1,642,385 polling units and collation centre agents of political parties will participate in the elections.

Voters not allowed to go to voting points with phones

Yakubu during the briefing disclosed that the Commission has fully recovered from the recent attacks on her facilities in some states.

He raised concerns about vote buying but was hopeful that the vices will be dealt with, stating that voters are not allowed to go to the voting cubicle with their phones.

Noting that all materials have been distributed to states, he said the sensitive materials are currently being delivered to local government areas. He said that non-sensitive materials were deployed two months ago.

For the record

• Recall that earlier in January 2023, INEC announced the extension of the deadline for the collection of PVCs for about a week.
• The election umpire who had earlier fixed January 22, 2023, as the deadline for the collection of these PVCs, extended the deadline to Sunday, January 29, 2023.
• Meanwhile, INEC later on, further extended the deadline for the collection of PVCs by another one week to February 5, 2023.