₦airaland Forum

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that over 14,000 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have been snatched by hoodlums from its officials during the collection exercise in Rivers State.

The state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mrs Gesila Khan, said this while speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt, on Friday, adding that it was the highest figure recorded in any part of the country.

Khan also said some of the cards were stolen from collection centres in some local government areas where the PVCs were deposited to enable the owners have easy access to them.

She, however, assured that the stolen cards would be useless as the card reader system would be used to authenticate and verify the real owner of the PVCs before they are allowed to vote.

She also disclosed that her office received 2,990,056 PVCs, out of which 1,869,379 had been distributed to eligible voters in the state.

She assured that more than 50,000 additional PVCs would be distributed two weeks before the general election, adding that over 80 per cent of the registered voters in the state had so far collected their cards.

Khan also said it would be difficult for politicians to rig the forthcoming elections, either through ballot box snatching, ballot box stuffing or the writing of bloated election results in hotel rooms or homes of influential politicians.

She explained that ballot papers and result sheets for each of the 23 local government areas in the state would be coded and wopuld have also been printed in colours that can be traced to each local government.

Mrs Khan assured that the February elections would be peaceful because of the existing cooperation among INEC officials, police and other security agencies in the state.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/news/news-headlines/item/28215-hoodlums-snatched-14-000-pvcs-in-rivers-inec

http://www.punchng.com/news/hoodlums-snatch-over-14000-pvcs-in-rivers/

dre11:
Who are these hoodlums that keeps snatching ballot papers every now and then