By Maxwell Effiong
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Cross River State has decried the rate of unwillingness of residents in the state from collecting their PVC.
A report by the News Agency Of Nigeria disclosed that a total of 309,394 registered voters have not collected their PVC.
INEC Spokesperson in Cross River State Tonia Nwobi in the report opined that if care is not taken the unwilling attitude to collect their PVC could lead to Voter apathy.
Nwobi stated this on Thursday while appealing to political parties, Party agents and Civil Society Organizations to carry out sensitization campaign on electorates about the need to collect their PVCs.
She said out of 97,381 voter cards produced for Crossriverians in 2019, only 8,045 were collected.
She added that out of 233,481 registered voters in Cross River in 2021/2022, only 68,073 have collected their cards.
While puting the figure of voters who transfer their voting ward to Cross River State at 70,474, she said only 17, 824 persons have collected their cards, leaving behind 52,650 cards uncollected.
Nwobi said INEC is also faced with it’s problem of failure to comply with the PVC collection procedures at the collection centers,’’ saying their challenge is that people are not willing to come out enough to collect their PVCs.
She said “they want INEC to decentralize the PVC collection centres to pulling unit level. “