Stay Away From Polling Units, If You Don’t Have PVC, INEC Warns Nigerians

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has advised Nigerians without the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to stay away from the polling units on Election Day.

INEC National Commissioner Festus Okoye conveyed the commission’s warning while receiving IT facilities from Community Life Project (CLP) and Ford foundation in support of the INEC Citizens Contact Centre (ICCC) yesterday in Abuja.

Okoye, who is the commission’s Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, said no any other means of identification would be used on Election Day, other than the PVC.

“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,” he said.

Okoye stressed that INEC remained committed to the use Bimadal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for voters’ accreditation and uploading of election results to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

The INEC national commissioner reminded the media, election observer groups and fellow citizens 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.