It was horror as yours truly went to collect her Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) at the Eti-Osa Local Government Office yesterday, January 25.
The plan was to spend a maximum of 1 and a half hours but on arrival at about 10:00am, I met a riotous crowd with officials of the council at a loss as to how to control them.
Many of the prospective voters said they arrived the venue as early as 5:00am just to be the first on the queue.
Frightened by the surging and impatient crowd, the INEC officials took cover within their offices from where they called in the police to assist control the hundreds of future voters screaming at them.
The future voters who kept trooping in their numbers were however not deterred by the heavily armed policemen. Gladly police officers patiently listened to the crowd and having gathered enough information about happenings, called a short meeting with the INEC officials to strategise on how to serve the irate crowd.
Having doused tempers, the security operatives undertook to escort the INEC officials with bags and batches of the voters’ cards, sharing them to pre-labelled canopies.
The canopies offered little or no shelter as the scorching sun got hotter by the minute. Yours truly was determined to forget the day’s activities as I would not go through the process another day.
A member of the public rushed home to his public address system with which both the police and INEC advised people to locate their ward canopies.
INEC officials under the different wards in the labeled canopies then began calling out names on the cards. It was obvious that so many more PVC owners were yet unavailable as INEC handlers would have called between 40 to 50 names before someone comes forward to pick his own.
Members of the public joined in to echo the names to ensure that everyone present is served.
I was finally got called at 3:45pm after sweating profusely for hours. I picked my card without signing for it and without showing any other means of identification.
The implication is that anyone could return some other time to claim my card is missing and if BVAS does not save the day, be in possession of 2 PVCs.
Videos:
Williams Uchemba cries foul:
On his part, Nollywood actor, Williams Uchemba, who is deeply concerned about the upcoming 2023 election, has called out officials of the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC.
He called them out over their attitude towards Nigerians seeking to collect their voters’ cards.
He lamented that the electorates are being subjected to difficulties in their quest to collect their cards at INEC centres across the country.
Uchemba stated that there have been videos of eligible voters crying out over how they are being treated by some staff of INEC who go as far as collecting money before releasing the cards.
The Abia State-born actor via his Instagram account shared one of the videos of some Nigerians protesting not being able to pick up their Permanent Voters’ Cards, PVCs, from their respective zones.
Uchemba lamented that most registered voters are told by INEC officials that the PVCs are either “not ready or cannot be found” stating that, INEC cannot disenfranchise people and expect a free and fair election.
According to him, he “hopes INEC is ready for what is coming.”
He urged the electoral empire to do the needful in order to resolve the matter.
Williams Uchemba posted: “@inecnigeriaKindly do the needful on this matter. Every registered voter that wants their PVC MUST have their PVC because every vote MUST COUNT. Please tag @inecnigeria to do the needful.“
Read also:
JUST IN ! Lagos Declares 4 Work-free Days for PVC Collection
Horrors of the PVC collection Process at Eti-Osa LCDA (videos)
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