The Independent National Electoral Commission has said that the number of people that have collected their Permanent Voter Cards has risen to 52,419,495.
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, who stated this in Abuja on Sunday, said the figure represented 76.15 per cent of 68,833,476 registered voters.
INEC had on Tuesday said that 52,275,367 people had collected their PVCs out of 68,833,476 registered voters. Responding to questions from our correspondent, Idowu said,
“The update I have with me now is for February 18 and it is 52,419,495 (76.15 percent).” Idowu also stated that card readers would be deployed in 152,031 polling units across the country during the March 28 and April 11 elections, adding that INEC had procured 26,000 extra card readers.
“Card readers will be deployed at 152,031 voting points. But the Commission also has more than 26,000 spares,” he said. According to him, ad hoc workers for the elections (excluding INEC members of staff and returning officers) are about 684,000.
He explained that the scheduled training for the ad hoc members of staff ended February 12 in readiness for February 14, the initial date for the presidential elections. Idowu said because the elections had been rescheduled, there would be more extensive trainings, especially on the card readers.
According to the figures released by INEC on Tuesday, Nasarawa State led other states in terms of the PVCs collection with 96.29 per cent of the 1,196,583 registered voters having their cards.
Coming second is Gombe State where 95.05 per cent of the 1,120, 023 voters had collected theirs. Jigawa State came third with 93.20 per cent of the 1,831,276 voters receiving their PVCs as of Monday.
Jigawa and Katsina came fourth and fifth respectively. While the percentage of the registered voters who have collected their PVCs in Jigawa stood at 93.20 per cent from 1,831,276 registered voters, that of Kastina was put at 92.68 per cent.
This figure indicated that 2,620,829 of the 2,827,943 voters had collected their PVCs. Coming from the rear is Ogun State where only 40 per cent of the registered voters had collected their PVCs.
