By: Precious Oham, Adebayo Adenrele
In Ekiti there is a worrisome low turn out of Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, collection by residents of the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had said that collection of PVCs at the Registration Areas/Wards will start from Friday, Jan. 6, till Jan. 15 2023.
NEWSTODAYNG gathered that at St. Thomas Primary School, Irona in Ward 11 Ado-Ekiti, few electorates were seen at the collection Center.
An INEC official, Akintola Opeyemi, decried the low turn out in the area saying “We have started distribution of voters cards at the ward level. So, it’s going to close on 15th of January for ward level. After the distribution at the ward level, it will continue in the office till 23rd of this month to prepare for the election.
“People have been coming even before we brought it to the ward level, but not as expected, the turn-up is not massive as we expect. We have no lingering challenge so far but, people are not turning up as expected.”
Mrs Olawunmi Folake, who picked up her PVC expressed dissatisfaction with the exercise. “I am not really happy with the INEC officer. About 15 of us came and had left already because they didn’t come on time. In fact, I have been here before, I have to leave my place of work and come back again for it, it’s really not fair.”
In the same vein, at St. Michael Catholic Nursery and Primary School, Ojido, Ward 13 in Idofin, Ebenezer Ogunmadeji, an INEC official, cited the low turn out to the last governorship election in the state, where electorates were massively mobilised for the exercise.
Ogunmadeji said: “There is low turn up of people. I guess it’s because of the just concluded governorship election we had in the state. People were massively mobilised then, people came out to collect their voters cards but, reverse is the case now.
“What we are doing here is just to bring the voters’ cards to the people, so that the collection will be easier for them. But as it is now, we have low turn up of people. The percentage of cards collected is fair, you know there would still be done cards uncollected.”
St Michael Primary School, Water Walks Area 1, Ward 4 Ijigbo, also witnessed low turn out of PVCs collection as few residents turned up for the exercise.
Omoleye Olayinka from INEC said: “Well, there is low turn-up as you can see. Maybe it’s because people are yet to be back in town after festive period. People are still out of the town, maybe when they come before the closure of the collection, I am sure the distribution would go along way.”
However, Omole Kayode was delighted with the seamless exercise saying “The process is seamless, very fast, there is no much queue because I get my card within 5 minutes.
“It’s good they bring it to our doorstep here because it’s very hard going to the INEC Office and be queuing before getting our cards.”
