The National Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Adamawa State branch, has lamented the poor pace of collection of outstanding Permanent Voter Cards by the electorates in the State.
This was disclosed by the new Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) deployed to the State, Hudu Yunusa, during a press conference in Yola, on Friday.
Yunusa said over 200,000 PVCs, registered since 2019 are lying idle in the offices of the commission across the 21 local government areas.
He said 36,000 additional voters had been registered during the 2022 voter registration.
“Some of the voter cards are yet to be collected by their original enrollees.”
The REC urged the media and the stakeholders to continue to sensitive the electorates on the imperative of the voter cards, stressing that the card qualified one as an eligible voter.
Yunusa said the commission received delivery of 4,104 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and the Result Viewing Portal for deployment to 4,104 polling units for the elections.
He said the State will host a week-long North-East zonal Technology Training in elections in batches, saying the participants were drawn from Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi and Taraba states.
Yunusa said; “We call on the politicians to avoid name-dropping, provocative comments, violence, thuggery and engagement of militia.”
“The Electoral Act prohibits campaigns in worship and public offices, so such attitude would not be condoned by the commission,” he added.
He said the commission had updated the staff skills through capacity-building training, seminars and workshops on election issues and processes.
The REC said the commission has so far recorded 10,000 people who applied to work as ad hoc staff out of the targeted 16,000 required temporary staff for the polls.
“The commission’s ad hoc staff recruitment portal is still active up to December 14, 2022; we, therefore, call on interested and qualified Nigerians to apply,” he said.
He said the commission will engage stakeholders on the conduct of the Internally Displaced Persons voting.
“We will focus our attention on Madagali, Fufore and Yola South Local Government Areas.
“We are currently displaying the Preliminary Register of Voters nationwide from November 12 to 28, 2022 for claims and objections,” he added.