Segun Atanda/
Barely 25 days to the 2019 General Elections, the umpire has raised the alarm over alleged mopping up of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) by unidentified persons.
Delivering a paper at a sensitization forum for media practitioners in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State attended by NewsmakersNG today, the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Publicity Committee of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Barrister Festus Okoye, said, “A new method of vote buying is being devised. We have received credible information that some partisan actors are now going around buying up PVCs from voters or financially inducing them to collect the Voter Identification Numbers (VIN) on their PVCs. In some instances, telephone numbers and details of bank accounts of voters have been collected.
“By collecting the PVCs, their intention may be to deprive the voters of voting since no one can vote without the PVC. By collecting their phone numbers and bank details, the intention is to induce voters by electronic transfer of funds to their accounts since it will be difficult to buy votes at polling units. By collecting the VINs, they may be acting on the mistaken notion that our system can be hacked into and the Card Readers somehow preloaded ahead of the election and compromised.
Okoye, who was represented by the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti State, Professor Abdulganiyu Olayinka Raji added: “We want to reassure Nigerians that we are aware of the new tricks. It is a futile effort. We will work with the security agencies to deal with the violators of our electoral laws, including those who may be trying to compromise our staff responsible for making the PVCs available for collection by legitimate voters.”
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