The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday declared that 42,779,339 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have been distributed so far out of the 68million cards billed to be distributed to eligible voters.It said that while 26million PVCs are yet to be collected, the percentage of collected PVCs is now 62.15 per cent.
Also, the commission declared that 145,000 smart cards have been distributed so far.
The commission had on January 7 disclosed that 38million cards had been distributed, remaining a total of 15million.
It further disclosed that the number of polling units is 119, 973.
According to the commission, Abia State has distributed 1,020,997 (73%); Adamawa: 1,239,820 (79%); Akwa Ibom: 1,328,714 (79.05%); Anambra: 1,222, 002 (62.25%); Bauchi: 1,745,441 (84.97%); Bayelsa: 386,125 (63.26%); Benue: 1,132,187 (56.18%); Borno: 999, 470 (56.18%).
Cross River distributed 776,977 (66.09%); Delta: 1,422,595 (62.52%); Ebonyi: 714,351 (66.50%); Edo: 1,046,960 (58.63%); Ekiti: 492, 869 (67.33%); Enugu: 738,933 (51.70%); FCT: 459,913 (52.18%); Gombe: 873,698 (78.0%); Imo: 682,046 (37.24%).
Others are Jigawa: 1,460,620 (79.76%); Kaduna: 2,976,628 (87.36%); Kano: 2, 612,400 (52.50%); Katsina: 2,245,303 (79.40%); Kebbi: 1,232,357 (83.8%); Kogi: 773,197 (57.24%); Kwara 711,920 (62.33%).
Lagos distributed 2,267,039 (38.39%); Nasarawa: 850,619 (66.45%); Niger: 1,250,379 (62.07%); Ogun: 666,752 (36.4%); Ondo: 824,715 (54.09%) Osun: 995,562 (70.75%); Oyo: 1,156,593 (47.88%); Plateau: 1,141,260 (57.01%); Rivers: 1,253,606 (49.40%); Sokoto: 1,211,717 (75.17%); Taraba: 1,079,383 (80.51%); Yobe: 740,336 (67.31%); and Zamfara: 1,045,855 (69.92%).
Meanwhile, INEC and the National Union Of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on election logistics.
Chairman of INEC, Prof Attahiru Jega, who underscored the importance of the MoU said it would go a long way in improving the work of INEC.
He said “the objective of the MoU is to ensure that election materials and electoral officers get to the polling units on time and also to ensure that they get to collation centres at the appropriate time.
“I believe that this will also help us to solve most of the challenges associated with electoral processes,’’ Jega said.
He, however, urged the union to do everything possible to ensure the implementation of the provision expected of them.
He said that the commission would look forward to working with the union in future in the conduct of credible elections in the country.
The national chairman of NURTW, Dr Najeem Yasin said the union would not disappoint INEC on the implementation of the signed MoU from the national chapter to the states and local government chapters.
Yasin said that the union would not hesitate to sanction any of its members or state chapters that defaults in the implementation of the MoU.
“Any state chairman that plays with this exercise would stand at loosing it seat as the chairman of NURTW of that state. We should not undermine our integrity,” he said.
