BEVERLY HILLS, February 07, (THEWILL) – Irate Borno youths Friday stormed the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to protest what they described as the failure of the electoral body to provide them with their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).
The rampaging youths who were however prevented from entering the INEC office by the security operatives station at the premises, said their action was targeted at ensuring that INEC distribute provides them with PVCs to enable them exercise their rights during the general elections starting next week.
One of the protesters, Mallam Mohammed Buba, accused INEC of trying to divert the PVCs for sale to politicians, saying : “We have waited patiently for some time now over the PVCs. But each time we made inquiries from INEC, their officials have been assuring us that the cards will soon arrive.
“We have just been alerted that INEC was just trying to play games as the cards had already arrived. We got worried with the information, especially now that the election is just a few days ahead.”
He nonetheless pleaded with INEC to release the PVCs without delay to avoid violence.
The Information Officer for the state INEC office, Tommy Magbiun, however deny the allegation, saying “It is true that we have not been able to distribute PVCs to some units in the state. This is mainly due to non arrival of the cards from Abuja. As I speak to you now, our drivers are already waiting in Abuja to collect the PVCs for onward delivery to Borno.”
Promising that the PVCs will be distributed as soon as they arrived, he said “We are expecting about 550, 230 PVCs from Abuja. Out of this 220, 906 are for voters who registered in 2011, while the balance is for those captured during the Continuos Voters Registration (CVR),” even as he assured that all registered voters will get their PVCs before next elections begin .
