The Senate on Tuesday summoned
the Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission,
Attahiru Jega, to appear before it
on Wednesday(today).
Jega is expected to brief senators
on INEC’s readiness for the
forthcoming March 28 and April 11
elections.
The senate, which resumed
plenary on Tuesday after a 33-day
break, took the decision following a
motion by its Leader, Victor Ndoma-
Egba.
Ndoma-Egba, a Senior Advocate of
Nigeria, while presenting the
motion asked Jega to come with a
card reader for demonstration
before the lawmakers.
The Minority Leader, George
Akume, who contributed to the
motion, suggested that the
service chiefs should also be
invited since they were blamed by
INEC for the postponement of the
polls hitherto scheduled for
February 14 and 28.
But Senate President David Mark
ruled that summoning the service
chiefs was not necessary at the
moment.
The Senators, through voice vote,
approved the invitation of Jega,
while agreeing that the invitation
of the service chiefs would be
determined by Jega’s submission
on Wednesday.
INEC has however said that 75.94
per cent or 52,275,367 of the
68,833,476 registered voters in the
country have collected their
Permanent Voter Cards.
As of February 4 when Jega briefed
the Council of State meeting in
Abuja, 45, 098, 878 voters had
collected their PVCs.
INEC which will deploy 182, 000 card
readers for use during the general
elections released the fresh figure
in Abuja on Tuesday.
A breakdown shows that Nasarawa
State is leading other states with
96.29 per cent of the 1,196,583
registered voters having their PVCs.
Coming second is Gombe State
where 95.05 per cent of the 1,120,
023 voters had collected theirs.
Jigawa State came third with 93.20
per cent of the 1,831,276 voters
receiving their PVCs as of Monday.
Jigawa and Katsina came fourth
and fifth respectively.
While the percentage of the
registered voters who have
collected their PVCs in Jigawa stood
at 93.20 per cent from 1,831,276
registered voters, that of Kastina
was put at 92.68 per cent.
This figure indicated that 2,620,829
of the 2,827,943 voters had
collected their PVCs.
Coming from the rear is Ogun State
where only 40 per cent of the
registered voters had collected
their PVCs.
There are 1,829,534 registered
voters in the state but only 747,556
of them had collected their PVCs so
far.
In the Federal Capital Territory, only
61.42 per cent of the 881,472
registered voters had also picked
their PVCs.
The figure also indicated that in
Lagos State which has 5,905,852
registered voters, 3,685,322 which
represents 62,40 per cent, have
collected their PVCs.
The issue of PVCs was one of the
reasons adduced for the shifting of
the elections by several groups,
including some political parties.
The Chief Press Secretary to the
INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, in
an interview with one of our
correspondents, said the
commission had concluded the
training of all ad hoc staff for the
elections.
“We finished the training of our ad
hoc staff on Thursday,” he said,
adding that INEC had taken
delivery of 182, 000 tested card
readers to be used in 119 polling
units across the country during the
elections.
Idowu said, “All the card readers are
already in the possession of the
commission. They have been
tested and found worthy. We have
182,000 card readers with us.’’
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
