The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained its decision to harvest Voter Identification Numbers (VIN) from Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) of Nigerians registered several years ago.
INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, Barr. Festus Okoye, in a statement on Wednesday, said the commission had become aware of a video circulating on various social media platforms.
According to the statement, the viral video was showing some INEC staff at our FESTAC Town, Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area Office, Lagos extracting Voter Identification Numbers (VINs) from Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) and entering same into their cellphones.
The makers of the video, Okoye said, had insinuated that they were doing this for the purpose of undermining the 2023 General Election.
INEC said the development was far from the truth.
“Actually, the video shows staff of the Commission harvesting VINs from PVCs, but only as part of an inventory of uncollected cards, provided for in the new Guidelines for the Management and Collection of PVCs, approved by the Commission for implementation nationwide”, said Okoye.
He said INEC in its determination to enhance the rate of collection of PVCs, the Commission decided to establish a PVC collection process that includes an online component.
The procedure entails that registered voters with access to the Internet could go to a dedicated portal to ascertain whether their PVCs are ready and to find their locations for subsequent collection.
“All they are required to do is to provide their details such as name, date of birth, state of registration or the last six digits of the VINs that they provided/received during registration, to locate their cards. This would improve the PVC collection process, but without prejudice to those who wish to go directly to the collection centres.
“For the newer PVCs, that is those from the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) that took place between January and July 2022, the VINs were harvested automatically and made available online. However, for the older uncollected PVCs that predate the new guidelines, their VINs must be harvested manually and painstakingly for upload to the PVC collection portal (www.voters.inecnigeria.org). The portal will also improve the records of the Commission regarding collected and uncollected PVCs”, he explained.
