2023 polls: Over 6 million PVCs uncollected, reveals INEC

• South West tops states for uncollected PVCs

• We’re fully prepared for election, says Yakubu

By: Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

As the presidential and National Assembly elections hold tomorrow, not less than 6,259,229 registered voters will not participate in the election as they are yet to collected their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).
The figure represents 6.7% of the total of 93,469,008 registered voters in the country.
The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this Thursday at the daily media briefing of the Commission in preparedness for the 2023 general election.
A total 87,209,007 Nigerians, according to Yakubu, have, however, collected their PVCs as at 5th February, 2023.
Statistics obtained from INEC indicated that states in the South West geopolitical zone has the highest number of uncollected PVCs.
The breakdown of uncollected PVCs showed that Lagos State leads with 845,225 uncollected PVCs representing 12 % of registered voters in the state, followed by Oyo State with 515,254 uncollected PVCs representing 15.7% of registered voters and Ogun with 410,281 representing 15.3% of registered voters.
Other states with high number of uncollected PVCs are; Edo State with 373,030 uncollected PVCs representing 14.9% of registered voters, Osun State with 360,794 representing 18.5% of registered voters, Ondo State with 261,981 representing 13.2% of registered voters.
Closely followed are; Rivers State with 251,418 representing 7.1% of registered voters, Adamawa State with 225,916 representing 10.3% of registered voters, Delta State with 232,183 representing 7.2% of registered voters and Taraba States with 197,049 representing 9.7% of registered voters, Kaduna State with 170,735 representing 3.9% of registered voters and Benue State with 170,586
representing 6.1% of registered voters.
States in the North East geopolitical zones have low number of uncollected PVCs with Bauchi having 27,662 representing 1.0%, Gombe having 40,840 representing 2.6%, Yobe having 47,295 representing 3.2% and Borno having 66,072 representing 2.6%.
In the South East, Anambra has 31,690 representing 1.2%, Ebonyi has 45,851 representing 2.9%, Enugu has 117,404, representing 5.6% Imo has 139,583 representing 5.8%, and Abia with 171,626, representing 8.1%.
In the South South, Bayelsa has 46,967, representing 4.4%, Cross River has 93,667, representing 5.3%, Akwa Ibom has 158,795, representing 6.7%.
In the North West, Kebbi has 51,870, representing 2.6%, Jigawa has 52,933, representing 2.3%, Katsina has 55,274, representing 1.6%, Sokoto has 74,091, representing 3.4%, Zamfara has 76,815, representing 4.0% and Kano with 327,177, representing 5.5%.
In the North Central are, Nasarawa with 51,495 representing 2.7%, Niger with 64,616, representing 2.4%, FCT with 93,868 representing 6.0%, Plateau with 101,995, representing 3.7%, Kogi with 118,945, representing 6.2%, and Kwara having 158,653 representing 9.4%.
The INEC Chairman stated, at the press conference he addressed with the National Commissioners of the commission, that the electoral umpire is adequately prepared for the general elections.
His words, “INEC is adequately prepared for the elections. Our allegiance is to Nigeria and no one else”.
Yakubu confirmed that INEC had gotten some forms of assistance, requested from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, among others.
According to INEC Chairman, “The General Election commences in next 41 hours, with the national elections (Presidential and National Assembly) on 25th February and state elections (Governorship and State Assembly) on 11th of March.
“The Commission has meticulously prepared and implemented its Election Project Plan, learning from recent elections.
“It is important to keep the sheer magnitude of Nigeria’s general elections in mind.
“The voter population of 93,469,008 is more that the total number of registered voters in all the other countries of West Africa put together.
“In addition, we shall be deploying to 176,606 polling units (excluding the 240 polling units without registered voters) simultaneously.
“This election is a huge logistical deployment. We have painstakingly procured, organised and delivered all the materials to the States for deployment. “We commenced the delivery of non-sensitive materials over two months ago and they have been batched down to Registration Area/Ward and Pulling Unit levels.
“Sensitive materials have been delivered to the States and are presently being delivered to our Local Government Area offices.
“As such, these materials are only between one and two levels away from the Polling Units. We have achieved this by learning from our recent difficult experience with logistics.
“We have completed arrangements with the transport unions for the final leg of the movement of personnel and materials to the Polling Units.
“They have assured us of their readiness to provide all the vehicular needs of the Commission for the election”, he said.