Political economist and management specialist, Pat Utomi joined the PVC collection advocacy walk to the INEC headquarters in Abuja on Thursday. During the walk, Pat Utomi asked INEC to allow people without the permanent voters card to cast their votes due to the poor collection rate of PVCs and as the 2023 election is less than 100 days away.
He said that since INEC can now use biometric voting, people who are eligible to vote can get scanned at polling units to cast their votes. He said that it’s a matter of national emergency that needs urgent attention as he claimed that there are still 9.3 million uncollected PVCs in INEC offices.
The request was made in a letter of demand from the group which was sent to INEC. Reacting to the request, the chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi said in an interview with Punch correspondent that there’s no possible way that someone can be allowed to vote without PVC.
He said;
“The procedure for accreditation and voting in an election is captured under sections 47(1), (2), and (3) of the Election Act 2022.
Therefore, there is no way that a voter can be allowed to vote without his or her PVC. There are no two ways about it”.
