By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA—Peeved by the seeming disinterest exhibited by Nigerian voters, with regards to the collection of their Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said it would soon digitize the whole process of registration, transfer or relocation of such cards.

INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, announced this during a media interface in Abuja, weekend.

He lamented the low rate of PVC collection across the country, attributing it to the fact that the cards were largely needs-driven.

Mahmood Yakubu

Yakubu said the monthly returns he continued to receive from the commission’s state offices were not encouraging, saying in some areas, where uncollected PVCs were as large as 400,000, only a paltry 30 pieces were collected in some months.

He said:  “It (PVC collection) is a big issue. I have been receiving monthly returns from the state offices, but sometimes there would be 400,000 PVCs uncollected in a state and the monthly return would show only 30 as having been collected.

‘’People don’t want to collect. It has to be tied to something, maybe, election is around the corner and they wish to vote, there is an incentive for them to do so. The director of ICT was telling me that the issue of cards is always tied to something.”