Wilson Adekumola
The Independent National Electoral Commission has warned Nigerians without the Permanent Voter Cards against coming to the polling units on election day.
INEC National Commissioner, Festus Okoye, made this admonition while receiving IT facilities from Community Life Project and Ford foundation in support of the INEC Citizens Contact Centre on Thursday in Abuja.
The Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Okoye, stated that the commission will not use any other means of identification other than the PVC on election.
He said, “As Nigerians go to the polling units on Election Day, we want to point out that it is a mandatory provision of the Electoral Act that every citizen who wants to vote in the coming election must have a PVC.
“It is a mandatory requirement of Section 47, subsection 1 of the Electoral Act.
“So, individuals that do not have the PVC are not required to approach any of our polling units.
“No individual is permitted to go to the polling units and provide any other means of identification other than the PVC.”
While reassuring Nigerians of the commitment of INEC, Okoye said that INEC remained committed to the use of Bimadal Voter Accreditation System for voters’ accreditation and uploading of election results to its Result Viewing Portal.
Advising the media, election observer groups and fellow citizens, the INEC national commissioner stressed that “it is only INEC that has the legal right to announce election results.”
“No media organisation, no individual, no citizen, no domestic or international election observer is permitted under the condition or under the law to announce election results.
“As some of you are aware, the chairman of INEC is the Electoral Commissioner for the whole of the Federation and the Retuning Officer for the presidential election.
“So, only the chairman of the commission is permitted by the constitution and the Electoral Act to announce the presidential results.
“Any other person can be appointed by the commission to announce any other level of election,” he said.
