The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has advised Nigerians without Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), to stay away from the polling units on election day.

INEC national commissioner, Festus Okoye, stated this while receiving IT facilities from Community Life Project (CLP) and Ford foundation in support of the INEC Citizens Contact Centre (ICCC) on Thursday in Abuja.

Mr Okoye, who is Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, said no other means of identification would be used on election day, other than the PVC.

“As Nigerians go to the polling units on election day we want to point out that it is a mandatory provision of the Electoral Act that every citizen who wants to vote in the coming election must have a PVC.

“It is a mandatory requirement of section 47 subsection 1 of the Electoral Act.

“So individuals that do not have PVC are not required to approach any of our polling units.

“No individual is permitted to go to the polling units and provide any other means of identification other than the PVC.

He re-emphasied that INEC was committed to the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for voters’ accreditation and uploading of election results to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

Mr Okoye also reminded the media, election observer groups and citizens that it is only INEC that has the legal right to announce election results.

“No media organisation, no individual, no citizen, no domestic or international election observer is permitted under the condition or under the law to announce election results.

“As some of you are aware, the Chairman of INEC is the electoral Commissioner for the whole of the federation and the returning officer for the presidential election.

“So only the chairman of the commission is permitted by the constitution and the Electoral Act to announce the presidential results.

“Any other person can be appointed by the commission to announce any other level of election,’’he said.

 (NAN)