Obinna Odogwu,Abakaliki
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Monday, flagged off the distribution of 69,363 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), in Ebonyi State.
This, the Commission said, was to ensure that the qualified electorates in the state participated in the electoral activities in the country and to ensure that no one is disenfranchised on the grounds of not having PVC.
Flagging off the distribution exercise in the commission’s office in Abakaliki council area in Nkaliki, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Godswill Obioma, said that the PVCs would be distributed to all the 13 council areas of the state for easy pick up by their owners.
“We have received a total of 69,363 Permanent Voter Cards to be distributed starting from today.
“For avoidance of confusion, these PVCs are meant for three sets of people: all those that registered properly last year in the continuous voter registration. We call them new registrants; those who are 18 years and above but have not registered before.
“Two, all those incident cases, transfers, deformations, lost PVCs, that also have come to report to INEC about the lost or damage, we have replaced these cards and they are here.
“And finally, all those that registered through 2015 who were not able to collect their cards; in Ebonyi State we have about 5,000 of them”, he clarified. ENDS