The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has dismissed claims that some of its officials are selling Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, in anticipation of the September 21 Governorship Election in Edo State.
In response, INEC has challenged the civic group, Transparency for Electoral Systems Advocacy TESA, to provide concrete evidence to support their allegations against the Electoral Officers.
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, made this statement while addressing inquiries from Vanguard regarding the alleged PVC sales in Edo State.
He said; “The allegation by the Transparency for Electoral Systems Advocacy TESA accusing the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC of selling uncollected Permanent Voters’ Cards PVCs to politicians in Edo State is untrue. The Commission does not sell but issues PVCs free of charge to only registered voters.
“Interestingly, this allegation follows the unfortunate pattern of similar narratives leveled against the Commission by partisan groups whenever off-cycle governorship or major elections are about to be conducted.
“It is a well known fact, and we want to assure TESA, that with the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS, it has become practically impossible for any voter to use another person’s PVC to vote. To that extent, any uncollected PVC cannot be used by anyone to vote during the Edo State Governorship Election. Politicians know this. In fact, any person that attempts to do so will be arrested and handed over to law enforcement agents on Election Day. It is also an electoral offence for an individual to be in possession of another voter’s PVC.
“Besides, the PVC collection process only began in 192 Wards in the State on Thursday 22nd August and will end today Monday 26th August. Thereafter, collection of PVCs will move our 18 Local Government Offices from 28th August to 8th September 2024.
“Therefore, the notion of ‘uncollected PVCs’ cannot suffice when, in fact, the collection process has just started.
“However, we encourage TESA and other individuals with concrete evidence of unethical acts against any of our Electoral Officers to promptly avail the Commission of the evidence for immediate action”, Oyekanmi added.