1.4 million unclaimed PVCS in Lagos raise concern

LAGOS State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Sam Olumekun, has said that over 1.4 million Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCS) remained unclaimed in the metropolis.

Olumekun, who disclosed this yesterday at the end of an inter-agency consultative forum on election at the Lagos State police headquarters, added that the commission registered 6,609,115 voters between April 2017 and August 2018.

According to him, the number of unclaimed PVCS in Lagos alone was alarming and the commission will do everything within its power to encourage owners to claim them.

He said: “Today, the interagency consultative forum on election security in Lagos State met and devised new strategies of tackling new issues that will arise during the election. The meeting has been very productive and we want to tackle current issues that are on the ground in the conduct of elections. Let me first assure you that INEC is on the ground fully and determined more than ever to conduct an election in February 2019 that will be better than whatever we have done before.

“We are going to improve on our strategies. This is why we are here to meet with security chiefs in Lagos under the umbrella of interagency consultative forum. In the past few months, some activities had taken place, including the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, which we undertook from April 2017 to August 2018. Lagos recorded additional 786,839 new registrants. This figure has been collated and it is the authentic figure.

“Presently, this brings us to a total number of 6,609,115 registered voters. The meeting considered the issue of uncollected PVCS. This is a big issue for us and we have brainstormed on it.