INEC worried over uncollected voter cards in Kwara

ATTAHIRU Garba Madami, resident electoral commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Kwara State, has expressed concern over the poor turnout for the collection of the Permanent voters cards, PVCS, by the registered voters in the State.

The INEC boss, who made this known during a stakeholders meeting held in Ilorin, Kwara State capital said, “We are still having a lot of challenges in the state in terms of PVCS collection.

“Out of the 46,602 new, PVCS received from the INEC headquarters in the state only 18,885 had been collected with a balance of 27,602 awaiting collection.

“From 2011 to 2019 the state had a total number of 233, 856 uncollected PVC. Out of this only 20,752 were collected as at October this year leaving over 193,000 uncollected.”

He declared that the state had 20,506, adding that only 6,055 had so far been collected with 14,451 yet to be collected.

He also said that the state had 43,008 invalid registration figures, one of the least in the country.

Madami said that the state currently has 1,689,288 registration figures as opposed to 1,401,895 in 2019.

“Completed registration figures are 330,401 and valid registration figures are 287,393,” he said.

Also speaking, the state Police Commissioner, Paul Odama, warned politicians not to “feed” their supporters with hard drugs.

“Politicians should do well to embark on issuebased campaigns and no personality-based campaigns. They should ensure that their followers are civil in all their actions. “They should shun thuggery and damage to the billboards of opposing parties. “As enshrined in the Electoral Law, votebuying and selling will not be allowed.

“On our part, we will do all within our powers to support and collaborate with INEC and other stakeholders to ensure that our democracy is firmly rooted in the country” he said.