Adedokun Waliyu 
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it does not know how some Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) found in a drainage system at an estate in Rumuodara Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, got there.
INEC spokesperson, Festus Okoye, disclosed this during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
In July, there were viral videos on social media showing some PVCs lying in some unidentified offices. There were also reports that PVCs were found in a drainage system in Rivers.
Some Nigerians have said the PVCs might have been stolen by gunmen, who attacked the commission’s offices in the Southeast and South-South regions.
INEC has recorded attacks on both its facilities and personnel in the last four years in the regions.
Okoye stated the commission’s branch in Rivers state had investigated the matter and submitted a report to that effect.
He, however, appealed to those who claimed to have found another set of voter cards in Lagos to make them available to the commission for proper investigation.
He said, “The commission has appealed to those who claimed to have found these PVCs to make them available to the commission so that we can carry out through investigation and forensic analysis of some of these PVCs to determine how they got there.”
He, therefore, said that uncollected voter cards from 2015 to date were still with the commission.
” For those registered from January to June, PVC will be ready for collection on or before October 2022. But for those registered from 1st to 31st of July, their PVC will be ready on or before November. And we are working to achieve this timeline, he added.
