PVCs: Aggrieved Borno registered voters threaten INEC with court action

By Shehu Abubakar, Maiduguri

As the collection of PVCs ends, a group of aggrieved registered voters in Borno State have alleged plan by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deny them their PVCs and consequently disenfranchise them.
“We have people in their thousands (including myself) who have been going to the INEC offices for collection of their PVCs registered under the most difficult situations and inconvenience but are yet to get it,” they complained to newsmen through their spokesman, Engr Ishaku Yakubu.
“INEC has previously announced to the media that all PVCs are ready for collection and lament how Nigerians are not coming out,” they stated, complaining, “meanwhile we queue up at their offices and ward levels to get PVCs only to be told “your PVC is not ready, come back in 3 days, come back in one week” and stories like that.”
The complainants alleged: “We have reasons to believe that there is a sinister plan to disenfranchise thousands of people as there appears to be no reason for holding up the PVCs.”
They said “Today is final deadline according to INEC and people are being asked to go and come back.”
They threatened to drag INEC to court if, by Tuesday, January 7, it does not issued them their PVCs.
“It is their right to protest,” the Borno State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ibrahim Magaji Mohammed, reacted to allegations to newsmen on phone, admitting, “they should not be disenfranchised.”
The REC, however, said: “The problem is that some of them registered more than once; and if you registered more than once, you cannot get your card.”
He advised the aggrieved registered voters to lay their complaints with INEC today to enable them get their PVCs for the 2023 elections.
“Today is also the closing date for the filling of complaint form,” Borno INEC Head of Voter Education, Shuaibu Ibrahim, told Peoples Daily earlier, advising the protesters to, “instead of wasting time complaining to newsmen they should hasten to fill the complaint form, and they will be told when and where to go and collect their PVCs.”
He said following such complaints duly lodged with INEC, there would be rapid printing of the cards for all registered voters with approved complaints to enable them cast their votes.