Less than a month to the forthcoming February general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that over 800,000 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) are still yet to be collected in Oyo State.
Resident Electoral Commissioner, Oyo State, Dr Adeniran Tella made this disclosure at a stakeholders’ meeting on mock accreditation/verification exercise held at the INEC state office, Ibadan, on Wednesday.
According to him, over 402,321 PVCs had been distributed so far, adding that those owners of the over 800,000 uncollected PVCs still had till 5pm on Sunday, February 5, to collect them at the INEC offices across the 33 local government area of the state.
He stressed that the PVC remained the only power of electorates on election days.
Meanwhile, mock voters’ accreditation/verification exercise will on Saturday hold in 12 polling units across the three Senatorial districts of the state.
READ MORE: Banks Prompted To Partner On Fight Against Lawless Practices
The select polling units are domiciled in Akinyele, Atiba, Iseyin, Ogbomoso North, Ibadan North and Ido local government areas of the state.
According to Tella, the mock exercise is to assure members of the general public of the robustness of INEC’s processes for the election, including the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
He added that the field tests will also enable INEC further strengthen its processes ahead of the general election.
0Tella assured that the 12 BVAS machines to be used for Saturday’s mock exercise will be reconfigured before they are deployed for the elections in the state.
The meeting saw various security agencies give assurances of ensuring security of personnel and materials during the mock accreditation exercise.
Other nongovernmental organizations and observers expressed keeness to see how BVAS works during Saturday’s exercise.
In his own comment, Public Relations Officer, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Mr Biodun Popoola charged political parties to actively participate in the mock accreditation exercise.
He also charged the INEC to get right the issue logistics, especially getting vehicles for transportation of electoral materials, particularly with the nation still grappling with fuel scarcity.
