INEC advises politicians not to buy PVCs

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has advised politicians to invest their time and resources in positive strategies of winning elections rather than buying Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) from prospective voters.

Mr Nick Dazang, the Deputy Director, Voter Education and Publicity, INEC, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday, following a claim that politicians were buying cards and collecting their numbers.

Dazang said it was also advisable for politicians to use their time well in other endeavours that would help the political processes instead of busy themselves collecting Voter Identification Number (VIN) of registered voters.

He said buying people’s PVCs would be of no help as the cards could not be used by another person other than the original owners.

``Politicians should encourage those who have not collected to go and collect their PVCs.

``I don’t know of any implication of collecting people’s VIN numbers; they are just wasting their times.

``If I were them, I would encourage those who have not collected to go and collect their PVCs because even if you collect someone else’s VIN number you cannot recreate his PVC.

``They should stop wasting their time; they should channel their energy towards productive and positive ends, ’’ Dazang said.

He added that there were security numbers in INEC PVCs which would make it impossible for the cards to be cloned or forged.

He also advised people not to sell their PVCs as that would automatically disenfranchise such voters from voting on elections days.

Speaking on the update on the level of PVCs distribution, Dazang said the commission had achieved 69.68 per cent nationwide distribution of PVCs on Feb. 10, 2015.

``Since we are speaking of three days ago, that means we have surpassed that bench-mark,’’ he said.