Hundreds of youths protested against non-arrival of their Permanent Voter Card s (PVCs) in Maiduguri on Friday in spite of assurances by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Borno.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the youths could not, however, enter the INEC premises due to the presence of security operatives.
Some of the youths told NAN that the protest was aimed at ensuring that INEC distributed the PVCs to them before next elections.
Malam Mohammed Buba, a spokesman for the youths, said “we have waited patiently for some time now without getting the PVCs.
“Each time we make inquiries from INEC, the officials say they have been assured from Abuja that the cards will arrive soon.
“But we have just been alerted by some persons that INEC was just trying to play games as the cards had already arrived.
“We got worried with the information, especially now that the election is just a few days away”, he said.
Buba appealed to INEC to release the PVCs without delay to avoid violence.
Mr Tommy Magbuin, Information Officer of INEC in Borno, said “it is true that we have not been able to distribute PVCs to some units in the state.
“This is mainly due to non-arrival of the cards from Abuja.
“As I speak to you now, our drivers are already waiting in Abuja to collect the PVCs for onward delivery to Borno”, Magbuin said.
He said the PVCs will be distributed as soon as they arrived. “We are expecting about 550,230 PVCs from Abuja.
“Out of this number 220,906 are for voters who registered in 2011, while the balance is for those captured during the Continous Voters Registration (CVR)”, Magbuin said.
He said that all registered voters will receive their PVCs before the elections.
