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2.4m PVCs Distributed By INEC In Kogi, Bayelsa State

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3 Days To 2023 Governorship Election, INEC Sends Warning To Political Parties, Supporters
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The Independent National Electoral Commission has revealed that it has distributed 2,485136 Permanent Voters’ Cards to the electorate ahead of the Bayelsa and Kogi State governorship election on November 16.

The chairman of the electoral body, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated this at a quarterly consultative meeting of the Commission with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Abuja on Wednesday.

Yakubu said a total of 889,308 PVCs have been collected in Bayelsa, while 1,485,828 PVCs have been collected in Kogi as at Sept. 30.

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He stated that the number of PVCs collected in Bayelsa represented 96.3 per cent of 923,182 registered voters in the state, while the number of uncollected PVCs stood at 33,874, representing 3.7 per cent.

The INEC Chairman said 1,485,828 PVCs were collected in Kogi, representing 90.2 per cent of 1,646,350 registered voters in the state, while 160,522 PVCs were yet to be collected, representing 9.8 per cent of the registered voters.

He added that the commission will release the figures of PVCs collected in each state by Local Government Areas and Registration Areas as part of its effort to deepen transparency and accountability.

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Yakubu said copies will be made available at the commission stakeholders’ meetings in Yenagoa and Lokoja and will be uploaded on INEC’s web site.

“Meanwhile, all uncollected PVCs have been retrieved from our LGA offices and would be deposited at the branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria in Bayelsa and Kogi for safekeeping, pending the resumption of Continuous Voter Registration (CVR)”.

He further stated that the commission has accredited 135 domestic observer groups and 16 foreign observer groups for the governorship election in the two states.

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He said that while 67 domestic observer groups were accredited for Bayelsa, 68 were accredited for Kogi, and eight foreign observer groups for each of the states.

“For the 2019 General Elections, INEC accredited a total of 159 observer groups out of which 120 were domestic and 39 foreign. Collectively, they proposed to deploy 73,562 observers made up of 71,256 domestic and 2,306 foreign.”

“However, seven months after the general elections, the commission has so far received reports from only 72 observer groups representing 45.2 per cent, out of 159.”

“I wish to remind those that are yet to formally submit their reports to the Commission to do so in earnest in both hard and soft copies as required of them under their terms of accreditation”.