Residents of Oyo State have been urged to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for use as power to negotiate and strengthen the nation’s democracy.
Dr Rahmon Adeniran, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), made the plea at a sensitisation programme tagged: “Power of PVCs” on Saturday in Ibadan.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that campaign was organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Oyo State Office, in collaboration with the BKLeff Entertainment Riders.
NAN reports that the power of PVC Ride Initiative is a nation-building advocacy project with the aim of creating more awareness for the populace to perform their civic responsibilities.
Adeniran said that the process was now at a stage where PVCs serves as a power to negotiate and strengthen democracy.
He said that the ultimate objective of the sensitisation programme was to encourage the electorate to collect their PVCs and participate actively in the electoral process.
According to him, the number of registered voters ahead of the 2023 general elections is still a work in progress, adding the commission recorded 396,229 registrants that completed voter registration in 2022.
“Out of the 396,229 registrants, 340,938 remained valid, while 55,291 (14%) are invalid registrants. These figures came into being after running what is called Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).
“ABIS is meant to weed out multiple registrants and other infractions that might have been committed in the last CVR in the state,” he said.
The REC said the commission was committed toward ensuring that they have a clean and credible register ahead of 2023 general elections, hence, the display of the national voters register.
According to him, the display is to enable to scrutiny claims, objection and collection of unclaimed PVCs respectively across the state.
Adeniran said that the use of technology has come to stay in the electoral process, particularly the use of Bimodial Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to verify and authenticate voter using PVCs.
He said that the BVAS would also be used to upload polling unit results in real time on election day into INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal via www.inecelectionresult.ng.
The REC said that PVCs issued from 2011 remained valid, urging the people to collect their PVCs and vote for political party of their choice.
Also, Mr Akorede Balogun, the BKLeff Managing Director, said that the initiative was aimed at advocating good governance through the use of their PVCs.
Balogun said that the initiative was to contribute to nation building by educating Nigerians on the need to partake in elections.
“What we hear people saying is that we have bad roads. It is not an information, but a regular thing that all of us know.
“What we have decided is that we don’t want to sit back and emphasise. We are interested in correcting such by advocating good governance with our PVCs,” he said.
Balogun, who recalled how they did a ride on same project in December 2021 in Kogi, said the initiative was a non-partisan advocacy.
NAN reports that the sensitisation train, which visited CP Adebowale Williams earlier in the morning, went through the major streets of Ibadan and strategic markets.
