Ibrahim Nuhu, the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission Voter Education, in Gombe State, has revealed that no fewer than 89,880 PVCs are uncollected based on statistics on 22 January 2023.
Nuhu disclosed that the number were based on the remainder of 2019 PVCs and the recent enrolment.
He made this disclosure in Gombe during the North-East stakeholders’ meeting on the 2023 general elections organized by Centre for Transparency Advocacy.
“2019 uncollected PVCs is 62,799. So far, after sensitisation, people were able to collect about 8,682 and for the new PVCs that we received which is almost 176,795, new PVCs collected from Abuja.
“During collection period, people have collected 141,022. We have a balance of about 35,773 and the old one we have a balance of 54,107. This update is based on 22nd of January 2023,” he said.
Also speaking, The Executive Director of Centre for Transparency Advocacy, Faith Nwadishi, urged organisers of peace accord to include signing of affidavit.
She said, “It is important at this juncture to remind the politicians of the Peace Accord that they voluntarily signed. This has become important as the heat of the elections and campaigns have intensified.
“It is reported that within a month – 8th October to 9th November, a total of 52 election-related acts of violence were recorded in 22 states. This number is scary and must not be allowed to fester.
“We call on politicians to respect the peace accord that they voluntarily signed, reign in their supporters, respect other candidates, stop the use of abusive words and above all, shun violence as we have only one country that we can call our own.
“Affidavit should be sworn after signing peace accord. To do something about the ceremonial signing.”
While lamenting the rate of defections in the country, Nwadishi disclosed that failure of political parties to have known ideologies could be the cause.
Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria, Gombe State Joseph Shinga, who was represented by the Secretary, Solomon Ayanwale, urged religious leaders to deviate from endorsing candidates of political parties.
“Because among our members we have APC, PDP and Labour party. It will be unfair to force anyone to vote for anyone based on religious leanings,” he said.