The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Thursday, said the commission is still in possession of over 400,000 uncollected permanent voters cards (PVCs) in Benue State.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Nentawe Yilwatda, made this known while receiving members of the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the state.
The REC said over 400,000 registered voters out of the 2.4 million registered voters in the state are yet to collect their PVCs.
Giving a breakdown, the REC said out of the 400, 000 uncollected PVCs, over 12,000 of them belong to voters in Walimayo Ward which is one of the largest wards in the state.
The REC who appealed to Benue voters to come out and collect their PVCs expressed fear that most of the residents will be disenfranchised if nothing is done to distribute the cards.
“We are hoping that before the election, we are going to have additional 200,000 PVCs printed and returned back to us.
“That means that we will have over 600,000 uncollected PVCs before the elections and we must get them distributed.
“There are over 2.4 million registered voters which means we may have about one-quarter of registered voters in Benue already disenfranchised from voting if we don’t get the cards to them before the election,” Mr. Yilwatda said.
He, therefore, said INEC is creating 12 additional distribution points in strategic areas across the state to ensure those who have not collected their PVCs can do so.
He warned that any registered voter who does not collect his or her PVC before the election stands disenfranchised
He said, “We have about 400,000 uncollected PVCs in Benue state right no and we are working towards ensuring that those 400,000 uncollected PVCs are distributed before the elections.
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“So, we are creating about 12 distribution points in the local government areas on Thursday. Between November 6 to November 12, we are sending our staff to mark those areas.
“We have listed those areas already and we are tagging them and we are moving from our office to all public places including Wurukum Park and other motor parks, High Level, Wadata Market, Modern Market and some of the strategic areas within the state.
“After that, we will do home-to-home and door-to-door enlightenment and then, we will return to ensure we get the cards collected.
“We would also use that opportunity to do card collection down to the wards and polling units across the state as a way of killing two birds with one stone,” he concluded.
He also said INEC will display the list of voters to enable people check their names for correction or omission as well as identify and report any underage voter if found.
This, he said, would enable Benue INEC to clean up its data-base before the 2019 general elections.
