The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday, November 8, 2022, cleared the air over a video circulating on social media where its staff were harvesting details of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs).
In a statement, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said it was not for any malicious reason, but to ease the process of collection of PVCs.
Okoye said that INEC had become aware of a video circulating on various social media platforms.
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The video clip shows INEC staff at its FESTAC Town, Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area Office, Lagos, extracting Voter Identification Numbers (VINs) from PVCs and entering same into their cellphones.
Okoye said that the makers of the video insinuated that they were doing that for the purpose of undermining the 2023 General Election.
“The commission wishes to state categorically that this is far from the truth.
“Actually, the video shows staff of the Commission harvesting VINs from PVCs, but only as part of an inventory of uncollected cards, provided for in the new Guidelines for the Management and Collection of PVCs, approved by the commission for implementation nationwide.
“In its determination to enhance the rate of collection of PVCs, the commission decided to establish a PVC collection process that includes an online component.
“The procedure entails that registered voters with access to the Internet could go to a dedicated portal to ascertain whether their PVCs are ready and to find their locations for subsequent collection.”
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Okoye explained that all they were required to do was to provide their details such as name, date of birth, state of registration or the last six digits of the VINs that they provided/received during registration, to locate their cards.
This, according to him, will improve the PVC collection process, but without prejudice to those who wish to go directly to the collection centres.
Okoye said that for the newer PVCs, mainly those from the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) that took place between January and July, the VINs were harvested automatically and made available online.