By Kamil Opeyemi
Barely seven weeks to the Nov. 11 governorship election in Imo, registrants are yet to collect at least 134,000 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), INEC declared in Owerri on Wednesday.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Sylvia Agu, told newsmen that INEC resumed the issuance of PVCs for the election on Sept. 11 and that the exercise would continue until Oct. 9.
“INEC still has about 134,000 uncollected PVCs in Imo piled in the 27 local government council secretariats of the state.
“I urge Imo residents to collect their PVCs at the INEC offices in their council areas, while those in Orsu Local Government Area should collect theirs at the state office in Owerri.
“Apart from the 27 local government area offices, INEC has also created some centres for PVC collection for Registration Areas that have more than 1,000 uncollected PVCs,’’ she said.
“Remember that PVCs cannot be collected by proxy and they must be exchanged with the Temporary Voter Cards.
“INEC has gone a step further to gather the phone numbers of owners of uncollected PVCs in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi to send bulk SMS to them,’’ she added.
Off-cycle governorship elections will hold in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi on Nov. 11.
Prof. Agu also told newsmen that INEC was fully prepared for the election in Imo and that all non-sensitive materials had been received and would be distributed to the various local government areas appropriately.
“The Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security of which the police is the lead agency is on top of the security situation and shall draw up security architecture for the exercise.
“INEC is poised to yet again conduct a credible, free and fair Election,’’ Agu assured.