The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has denied report circulating that its officials were selling Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, ahead of the September 21 Governorship Election in Edo State.
While describing the allegation as untrue, INEC challenged a civic group, Transparency for Electoral Systems Advocacy, TESA, to provide concrete evidence against Electoral Officers to back up its claim of PVCs sale in Edo.
Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, disclosed this in a statement in response to the allegation.
He said the Commission does not sell but issues PVCs free of charge to only registered voters.
According to the INEC official, the allegation followed the pattern of similar narratives leveled against the Commission by partisan groups whenever off-cycle governorship or major elections are about to be conducted.
He stated further that with the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS, it has become practically impossible for any voter to use another person’s PVC to vote.
Oyekanmi added that any PVC yet to be collected cannot be used by anyone to vote during the Edo State Governorship Election, pointing out that any person who attempts to do so will be arrested and handed over to law enforcement agents on Election Day.
“Besides, the PVC collection process only began in 192 Wards in the State on Thursday 22nd August and will end today Monday 26th August. Thereafter, collection of PVCs will move our 18 Local Government Offices from 28th August to 8th September 2024.
“Therefore, the notion of ‘uncollected PVCs’ cannot suffice when, in fact, the collection process has just started.
“However, we encourage TESA and other individuals with concrete evidence of unethical acts against any of our Electoral Officers to promptly avail the Commission of the evidence for immediate action,” added Oyekanmi.
