The Resident Electoral Commisioner of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Enugu State, Dr Emeka Ononamadu, has unveiled the plan of the commision to move its staff to 260 political wards to distributes 400,000 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in the state.
Ononamadu stated this in Enugu during presentation of Register of Voters which would be used in the 2019 general election, saying, “We are going to move over 500 staff, which comprise over 400 staff and over 40 NYSC corpers to these wards’’.
According to him, the direct distribution in political wards would last for six days, adding that it would commence from next week.
“The exercise will last from Monday, Jan. 14 to Saturday, Jan. 19; while it will last from 9a.m. to 4p.m. daily,’’ he said.
He said, “With the co-operation of the electorates on this latest PVC collection move and the whole cards collected, the state will be having a whooping 1,900,000 PVC holders and potential voters.”
Ononamadu stated further that the exercise had become necessary to get the uncollected PVC cards close to the people no matter the hiccups in terms of distance, peculiar terrain and timing, saying, “We want the media to help the commission circulate this information to our people in the state.
“INEC will also do local statewide sensitization towards the weekend, where we engage town criers and mobile public address system in each community and council areas to reach the people.
“We have discussed with traditional rulers on this so that they also help in mobilizing their subjects to come en mass to collect their PVCs.
“On our own part, we have made adequate security arrangement with security agencies to protect our staff and PVC cards as the exercise takes-off,’’ he said.
He pointed out that INEC staff would never give the PVC cards on proxy; adding, “Each person must collect his or her card in person’’.
On the recent official published INEC register handed over to national chairmen of 91 political parties, the REC said that it was promised fulfilled by the commission.
According to the REC, INEC had kept faith with its commitment to Nigerians by following religiously the electoral time-table, urging the national chairmen of the various political parties to make it available to their various chairmen at the state, zonal, council and ward levels, noting, “This shows INEC’s readiness for a successful, hitch-free and credible election as we move ahead.”
