By By Elsie Udoh
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has again extended its deadline for the collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) to February 5, 2023.
This was announced by the National Commissioner of the electoral body, Festus Okoye, after a meeting held with INEC Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on Saturday.
This move is coming after the Civil Society Organisation (CSO) called on the electoral umpire to extend the deadline to ensure that every registered voter gets their PVC before the elections.
The commission had initially stipulated January 29 as the set date for the collection of the PVC by registered voters.
However, reports from various states on the number of collected PVCs have propagated the second time change in date.
Okoye said, “Arising from reports from the various States and discussions with Resident Electoral Commissioners, the Commission has decided to further extend PVC collection in all its Local Government Offices nationwide by an additional one week. The ongoing collection of PVCs nationwide will therefore continue and end on 5th February 2023.”
The commissioner also emphasised that there will be no more extensions in the PVC collection deadline.
“This is the second time the Commission is extending PVC collection nationwide and this will be the last extension of the exercise. The collection period has further been extended by an additional two hours and will start at 9 am and end at 5 pm daily including Saturdays and Sundays,” he added.
Okoye lauded the progress recorded by the commission so far and encouraged Nigerians who are yet to do so to pick their PVCs in PVC collection centres.
