The Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) has said hoodlums
forcibly snatched about 14,000 Permanent
Voter’s Cards (PVCs) from officials of the
commission during the collection exercise in
Rivers State.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner
(REC), Mrs. Gesila Khan, made the disclosure
while speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt
on Friday.
She said some of the cards were stolen from
local government collection centres where the
PVCs were deposited at the close of the
collection exercise to enable the rightful
owners pick them up at their own time before
the elections.
Khan also said over 50,000 PVCs would be
distributed to their owners before the general
election, adding that more than 80 per cent
of the registered voters in the state have
collected their PVCs.
She stated that her office received 2,990,056
PVCs and distributed 1,869,379.
The resident electoral commissioner, who
expressed dismay at the action of the
hoodlums, expressed regret that Rivers State
recorded one of the highest cases of stolen
PVCs in the country.
Her words: “I am appealing to Rivers people
because we have lost a lot of cards. We have
lost more than 14,000 PVCs and it is one of
the highest figures in the federation.
“All the cards that are being snatched are
useless and meaningless because we are
going to use a new system called card
readers. Your card readers are just like ATM
cards. You take it there and they slot it into
the card reader to confirm if it is yours
before you are allowed to vote.
“So, if you go there with another person’s
voter’s card, it is meaningless. So, I am
advising those of you with other peoples’
cards to return them to the local government
offices so that the rightful owners can collect
them so that they can participate in the
general election”.
"Polling officer will, on the presentation of
the PVC by an electorate, slot the card into
the card reader to confirm if it belongs to
you. The next stage is the confirmation of
your finger prints by the card reader before
you are allowed to vote. If you go to the
polling booth with someone else’s card, you
would not be able to vote because each card
is unique and can only be authenticated by
the real owner. The PVC’s are meaningless to
those who have stolen them”.
Mrs. Khan further emphasised: “The PVCs are
beyond registration; the cards are beyond
voting. People now use these cards in the
banks as a means of identifying themselves.
All those who snatched these cards should
please take them to the designated collection
centres so that we can give them to the
rightful owners so that the rightful owners
can use them during the elections to perform
their legitimate civic duties”.
Khan further warned politicians that it would
be doubly difficult for them to rig the
forthcoming election either through ballot box
snatching, ballot box stuffing or the writing
of bloated election results in hotel rooms or
the homes of influential politicians.
She explained that ballot papers and result
sheets for each of the 23 local government
areas in the state would be coded and had
also been printed in colours that could be
traced to each local government. Mrs. Khan
assured that the 2015 election would be
peaceful because of the cooperation among
INEC, police and other security agencies in
the state.
Commission (INEC) has said hoodlums
forcibly snatched about 14,000 Permanent
Voter’s Cards (PVCs) from officials of the
commission during the collection exercise in
Rivers State.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner
(REC), Mrs. Gesila Khan, made the disclosure
while speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt
on Friday.
She said some of the cards were stolen from
local government collection centres where the
PVCs were deposited at the close of the
collection exercise to enable the rightful
owners pick them up at their own time before
the elections.
Khan also said over 50,000 PVCs would be
distributed to their owners before the general
election, adding that more than 80 per cent
of the registered voters in the state have
collected their PVCs.
She stated that her office received 2,990,056
PVCs and distributed 1,869,379.
The resident electoral commissioner, who
expressed dismay at the action of the
hoodlums, expressed regret that Rivers State
recorded one of the highest cases of stolen
PVCs in the country.
Her words: “I am appealing to Rivers people
because we have lost a lot of cards. We have
lost more than 14,000 PVCs and it is one of
the highest figures in the federation.
“All the cards that are being snatched are
useless and meaningless because we are
going to use a new system called card
readers. Your card readers are just like ATM
cards. You take it there and they slot it into
the card reader to confirm if it is yours
before you are allowed to vote.
“So, if you go there with another person’s
voter’s card, it is meaningless. So, I am
advising those of you with other peoples’
cards to return them to the local government
offices so that the rightful owners can collect
them so that they can participate in the
general election”.
"Polling officer will, on the presentation of
the PVC by an electorate, slot the card into
the card reader to confirm if it belongs to
you. The next stage is the confirmation of
your finger prints by the card reader before
you are allowed to vote. If you go to the
polling booth with someone else’s card, you
would not be able to vote because each card
is unique and can only be authenticated by
the real owner. The PVC’s are meaningless to
those who have stolen them”.
Mrs. Khan further emphasised: “The PVCs are
beyond registration; the cards are beyond
voting. People now use these cards in the
banks as a means of identifying themselves.
All those who snatched these cards should
please take them to the designated collection
centres so that we can give them to the
rightful owners so that the rightful owners
can use them during the elections to perform
their legitimate civic duties”.
Khan further warned politicians that it would
be doubly difficult for them to rig the
forthcoming election either through ballot box
snatching, ballot box stuffing or the writing
of bloated election results in hotel rooms or
the homes of influential politicians.
She explained that ballot papers and result
sheets for each of the 23 local government
areas in the state would be coded and had
also been printed in colours that could be
traced to each local government. Mrs. Khan
assured that the 2015 election would be
peaceful because of the cooperation among
INEC, police and other security agencies in
the state.
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