Ahead of Saturday’s rescheduled presidential and National Assembly election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kwara State, has said that a total number of 1,407,400 are registered voters in the state.
INEC however added that 1,149,969 have collected their permanent voter’s cards (PVCs), with a balance of 257,431.
The uncollected PVC have been returned to the Central Bank of Nigeria for safe keep in an exercise that was witnessed by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mallam Garuba Attahiru Madami, journalists, international observers and other officials of the commission.
Speaking with journalists shortly after the event, Madami said that the commission will resume the collection of the PVCs and voters registration immediately after the governorship and House of Assembly elections for the 2023 exercise.
The REC last week revealed that the commission had recruited 11,992 as ad-hoc staff for the exercise, noting that they had all been trained and deployed accordingly.
He said all materials sensitive and non-sensitive have been dispatched to all the local government area offices before the poll was rescheduled.
He urged the political actors to play the game according to the rule and avoid violence.
“Be reminded that there are lots of dos and don’ts which must be religiously observed as the law will catch up with anyone trying to flout the laws.”
“A total of 2,887 smart readers have been upgraded, fully charged and deployed and 1,827 local and international observers have been accredited.”
The INEC commissioner noted that over 200 media men applied for accreditation, but 109 got accredited.
Mallam Madani had said that “by and large, I can say without mincing words that we are ready for the elections. I, therefore, used this medium to call on all eligible voters to turn out en masse to cast their votes without any fear of intimidation. The security agencies who have been adequately trained have promised they would keep the voting areas safe.”
