PDP demands extension of time for PVC collection

Less than two weeks to commencement of the 2019 polls, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend the collection of Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) by three days. The party’s demand is predicated on what it called reports across the nation that some compromised INEC officials at the collection centres are deliberately refusing to issue the PVCs to voters thereby frustrating millions of registered voters from getting their voters cards. The PDP believed that this deliberate refusal to release the PVCs is part of the wider plot by the APC to disenfranchise millions of Nigerians and frustrate their eagerness to vote out President Muhammadu Buhari at the February 16 Presidential election and elect-in the peoples candidate, Atiku Abubakar. The PDP in a statement by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, demanded explanation from INEC for turning back registered voters who went to collect their PVCs and directing them to come at a later date for an exercise that is programmed to end on Friday. “Information available to us shows that the APC has plans to use the uncollected PVCs to allocate votes to President Buhari. “The PDP therefore calls on the leadership of INEC not to plunge the election into a needless controversy but to redeem itself by extending the closing date for the collection of the PVCs by three days”, he said