Thousands of eligible registered voters Monday besieged the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital, demanding their permanent voters cards (PVC) ahead of the July 14 governorship election.
The angry electorate, who said they have visited the INEC offices for several months and were unable to collect their PVCs, alleged that the commission may have sold the cards to politicians.
Sola Akindele, who transferred his PVC from Oye-Ekiti to Ado, said he has visited the INEC offices severally for his card to no avail.
“Last week I was here for the PVCs they asked me to come on Monday (today), I am still not able to get the card. This is my right and I must get the card to vote. I transferred from my town, Oye, to Ado. We are ready to vote but INEC is denying UA this right.”
Another prospective voter, Adewale Adekola, said: “I have been coming here from Ureje for the past four months. They have always been asking me to come back. They said I should come back today. I spend N300 on transport on daily basis.
I arrived here since 7:00 am, we have been waiting and this is almost 11:00 am.
“They have not bothered to check, they have been giving the cards to some people that they know from their churches and mosques. They will call those ones inside and give them their card.
“Now they are asking us to come back on Wednesday but the collection will close on Friday,” he alleged.
INEC spokesman in the state, Taiwo Gbadegesin, however dismissed the claims. He added that PVCs cannot be sold because only the person whose biometric is captured on the card can use it.
He said: “We have just taken delivery of the final copies of the Permanent Voters Cards and we need to do some sorting to respective local government area offices of the commission. We cannot just begin to give them out like that.
“All prospective voters that have duly registered for the PVCs would get their cards this week unfailingly. We urge them to just exercise patient.
“The allegation that we have sold the PVCs can’t be true because there is no way it is possible for another person to use one’s PVCs. No one can collect the cards by proxy. It is just some of the unfair criticism we get from the public. We can’t blame those saying that because when you are embittered you would say so many things. The sorting would end this evening and all prospective voters duly registered would start collecting the PVCs. The police are not intimidating anyone, they are only at the office to ensure orderliness”, he said.
