INEC national electoral commissioner May Agbamuche-Mbu has urged Rivers residents to collect their permanent voters card (PVC) without delay.

Mrs Mbu, in charge of Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa and Rivers, gave the advice at a news conference on Monday in Port Harcourt.

She said that the collection of PVCs in the state had been low with seven months to go for the 2023 general elections.

She stated that Rivers received 95 INEC Voter Enrollment Devices called IVED and deployed them to 24 registration centres in the local government areas and also to the head office.

Mrs Mbu said the Commission registration officers and other staff at the LGAs had been working assiduously to make sure they registered voters in the state.

According to Mrs Mbu, from the records, 278,417 new voters were registered as well as 127,670 voters transfer and 43,080 Permanent Voters Card replacement as at July 24.

She said out of about 54,945 new PVCs received by the state, only 10,373 had been collected, leaving an outstanding 44,572 for transfers and replacements.

The Commissioner said the Commission had a record of about 302,297 cards from the old PVC of which only 33,575 were collected.

“The Commission is working hard in its preparation for the 2023 general elections and strongly desires that no citizen is disenfranchised and that every vote will count,” she stated.

She said that the Commission was now in the last week of the exercise which would be concluded by July 31.

Mrs Mbu commended the figures that emanated from Rivers state during the registration.

“I therefore urge the people of Rivers state to collect their permanent voter cards in good time and not to wait until the last minute of the 2023 general election,” she said.  

(NAN)