Over 402, 321 Cards Distributed, More Than 800,000 Yet To Be Collected In Oyo – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that more than 800,000 Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVC) are yet to be collected in Oyo State with just a few weeks to the elections.

The commission in Oyo State said it has so far distributed over 402, 321 in the 33 Local Government Area offices in the state.

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), in the state, Dr Adeniran Tella, bemoaned the number of uncollected PVCs despite the commission’s extension of deadlines on two different occasions.

Tella made the revelation on Wednesday when he spoke at a stakeholders meeting on the Mock Voters Accreditation/Verification Exercise.

The Oyo REC noted that the PVCs are still in their various offices in the state for collection, and urged people of the state to get their PVCs before the deadline.

He said “INEC has distributed over 402, 321 PVCs in the state.

“More than 800,000 PVCs is yet to be collected at various 33 Local Government Area offices in the state.”

While speaking about Saturday’s exercise on mock accreditation, he remarked that it is a crucial activity for the commission to undertake ahead of the election proper because its an avenue to assure the people in the state of the robustness of the INEC system and as well strengthen the electoral process ahead of the general elections in the state.

Tella explained that “The essence of the Mock exercise is to conduct field tests across the three Senatorial District in the state using twelve Polling Units at Oyo North, Oyo South, and Oyo Central District of the state.

“The Commission is to deploy technology for the conduct of the forthcoming elections through the use of BVAS for Accreditation/Verification of voters and uploading Polling Units results through INEC Result viewing Portal (IReV) on elections day.”

He told the gathering including heads of various security agencies in the state that the exercise has been scheduled for Saturday 4th February 2023 from 8 am to 2:30 pm in all the affected Local Government Areas/Polling Units in the states.

The Oyo REC also called on registered voters in the selected polling units to partake in the exercise on the slated date with their PVCs.