Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has angrily chided Nigerians equating the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) with Automatic Teller Machine (ATM), describing the comparison as uncharitable.

It also boasted and assured Nigerians and the international community that no legal action against the commission can stop next year’s general elections.

Speaking during an interactive session at a meeting with Bureau Chiefs and Editors in Abuja, National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye also blamed the high volume of invalid registrations in some parts of the country on double and multiple registrations due to rumours of possible expiration of PVCs.

Backing up the commission’s claims that court cannot stop the 2023 general elections; Okoye warned that the constitution is completely silent on what becomes the country if a president could not emerge should the poll fail to hold.

“We assure all Nigerians that the processes and procedures as well as the preparations for the conduct of the 2023 general election are on course. Out of the 14 items in our timetable and schedule of activities, we have implemented nine and we implemented all of them on schedule.

“We are comfortable with the level of our preparations and as the Chairman of the commission has assured the nation, never again will scheduled elections be postpone or rescheduled on account of logistics and logistics challenges,” he assured.

Speaking further, the National Commissioner said; “Now on the comparison between PVCs and ATM, it will be uncharitable to equate the two. ATM cannot be used to remove government in power, PVC can. So, it will be wrong to equate them.

“As National Commissioner, I went round during registration but while we are telling them the requirements for the registration, many of them cared less. That is why we had some people registering two or three times. Unfortunately for some of them, we have an automated machine to checkmate it.

“Our PVCs have powers and if you want us to do it like ATM, how are we going to detect all these flaws. The processes and procedures we have adopted to cleanse PVCs cannot be compromised.

“Some of these new registrants have done the exercise before, but when there was speculation that PVCs can expire, some of them went for fresh registration and that accounted for the high volume of invalid registrations recorded during this CVR,” he noted.

“The Display of the Preliminary Register of Voters for claims and objections at the Registration Areas end today and all other activities relating to claims, objections and complaints will be entertained at the various offices of the Commission in the 774 Local Government Areas of the Federation and on the commission’s website.

“We will harvest all the claims, objections and complaints and carefully and objectively deal with them. The whole essence of the display is for Nigerians to double check the register and assists the Commission put in place a robust, comprehensive, and acceptable register.

“While it is important to use the social media to point out errors, issues and challenges in the register, the correction of the errors and removal of malicious registrations must follow the procedure and sequence outlined in section 19 and 20 of the Electoral Act, 2022.

“We urge members of the public to approach our Revision Officers for assistance in making their claims, objections, and complaints.

“We also encourage members of the public to visit the commissions website and follow the protocols outlined therein in making their claims,” the commission appealed. (The Sun)

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