The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), in Yobe State said 78, 989 registered eligible residents have yet to collect their permanent voter cards (PVCs).
Abatcha Bukar, the State’s Administrative Secretary of the Commission, disclosed this during an interactive session with the political parties and other critical stakeholders in Damaturu.
Bukar said out of the total number, more than 60,000 were left over from the 2019 registration exercise that was not collected, while the remaining ones were those recently sent by the national office of the commission.
“In 2019, we registered 72, 157 eligible voters out of which only 16, 446 collected their PVCs, while the remaining are still lying in our offices across the 17 local governments and the state headquarters.
“As we are talking to you, all those who registered during the first batch of the voter registration exercise specifically, from June 2021 to January 2022 their PVCs are with us, ready for collection”, he said.
According to the Administrative Secretary, those who participated in the registration exercise from January 2022 to June 2022, their PVCs would be ready by the end of October 2022.
Bukar, however, expressed concern over the inability of registered voters to collect their PVCs, hence urged politicians to enlighten their supporters on the need to collect their cards on or before the general elections.
He also called on the media and civil society organisations, (CSOs) to assist in sensitizing the public on the importance of PVCs.