By Daud Olatunji

ABEOKUTA—The Independent National Electoral Commission in Ogun State has discovered 555 Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, belonging to dead people in the state.

The commission, however, said it had set aside the PVCs, adding that investigation was still on-going to know the actual figure of registered voters who had died.

Making the disclosures, yesterday, at a press conference in Abeokuta, the Resident Electoral Commission, Timothy Ibitoye, reacted to conflicting reports over number of registered voters and PVCs collected so far from Abuja, saying the commission had received 1,370,340 and had distributed 860,076 PVCs.

The REC said the correct figure of registered voters is 1,795,794 and not 1,829,534.

He said if we based the percentage of PVCs on registered voters, we have received 63 per cent. But, if we base it on the figure of the registered voters, it is 47 per cent.

“We are expecting 425,454 PVCs from Abuja. But, the PVCs yet to be collected is 510,264”, he added.

On how the INEC knew that 555 PVCs belonged to dead people, Ibitoye said that it was discovered shortly after it displayed the names of those who are yet to collect their PVCs.

‘’We are trying to make sure we have correct PVCs distribution. We have gone to all the local governments from polling unit to polling unit to write out the names of those who have not collected their cards and during investigation, they gave us the figure of those who are dead in all the local government areas of the state,’’ he said.