By Munachimso Obienyi
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said new Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) would be made available by November.
At a National Endowment for Democracy event in Washington DC in the United States, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, said 2.7 million double registrations were weeded out of the last Continuous Voters Registration exercise conducted by the commission and about 50 per cent of the new PVCs are ready but yet to be distributed to collection centres.
He also raised concerns about the rising levels of insecurity across the country, saying the Commission has its fingers crossed.
“It is a perennial issue because, at the end of the day, it is not new but the dimension of the insecurity is new in the sense that in the past, it was localised or confined to a particular part of the country, the North-East but now, it is more widespread.
“We are keeping our eyes, particularly, on the North-West and the South-Eastern part of the country. Elections are conducted by human beings. We worry about the security of our officials, materials, and even the voters themselves. Without them, elections cannot be conducted,” he said.
Yakubu said they have spoken to the security agencies and have been assured that the situation will improve before the elections.
Last month, at a forum with members of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, Yakubu said;
“For the 2023 general elections, INEC is making preparations for approximately 95 million voters. Yes, we have 84 million voters now; we have registered 12 million newly. None of the fresh registrants has been added to the register. We are cleaning up the register”
