Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has explained its decision to harvest Voter Identification Numbers, VIN, from Permanent Voter Cards PVCs of Nigerians registered several years ago but are yet to collect their PVCs.
INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye in a statement, yesterday, said: “The commission had become aware of a video circulating on various social media platforms, showing some INEC staff at our Festac Town, Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area Office, Lagos extracting VINs from Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) and entering same into their cellphones.
“The makers of the video had insinuated that they were doing this for the purpose of undermining the 2023 general elections. INEC said the development was 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,” said Okoye.
He said INEC in its determination to enhance the rate of collection of PVCs, 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 were ready and to find their locations for subsequent collection.
