The Lagos State electional commissionerinf the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), James Popola has said that the electoral body will sanction any electoral officer (EO) who politjzes the collection of the Permanennt Voters Cards (PVCs) to registered voters.
The commissioner gave the warning when the gubernatorial candidate of the Lagos State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olajide Adediran, popularly called Jandor paid a courtesy visit to the INEC office in Yaba Lagos State.
The INEC commissioner who among other things said that the electoral umpire will improve on its performance in Ekiti State governorship election, stressing that what the body had done in Ekiti is a small show compared with what it will do in Osun and subsequent elections.
Responding to questions of politicising PVCs collection, Popola said that anyone who sees an electoral officer politicising PVC collection should put him on notice.
“PVCs are meant to be collected and not distributed. It is not given by by proxy. The person collecting it had to be physically present. If you have any information on and EO which conives with politicians to distribute PVCs please report to us.
Speaking on the challenges that the commission faces in the ongoing registration exercise, Popola pointd out that people undertake fresh registrations instead of going to collect their pvcs.
” The youth have requested for an extension of the date and I am sure that the chairman will look into it. Ha has been in Ekiti for the election and after that he will have to time to look it that request. Whatever the commission decides to do we will act on. If the commission ask us to extend , we will extend and if they want to close on 31st of 30th of this month, we will act but I am sure that the commission will weigh the various options.
“Those who have lost their PVCs or their PVCs have defaced need not go for fresh registration.We also wat the political parties to partner with us. Mobilization and sensitization of voters is not only the responsibility of the commission.
“The issue of PVC collection is plaguing us. It will be shocking to you to know that after Easter holidays we have over 34,000 PVCs that is a dude from over 1 million pvcs over the year which have not been collected. It is not only important for them to register, they should also collect the PVCs after registration”
