By SULE TAHIR, Dutse

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied alleged ethnic profiling of voters in the distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in some parts of the country.

The Commission described reports that its officials refused to give PVCs to registered voters belonging to a particular ethnic group as false.

Chief Press Secretary, Rotimi Oyekanmi, disclosed this in a chat with reporters covering INEC.

Oyekanmi was reacting to videos and claims by some registered voters in Lagos, who accused INEC staff of colluding with politicians, allegedly belonging to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to deny them their PVCs.

Maintaining that the story is false, he said the Commission had initially delivered 940,200 PVCs to Lagos for new registrants. According to him, as of January 26, 2023, 839,720 PVCs (representing 89.3 percent) had been collected. He said additional PVCs were also delivered to Lagos recently, and owners have been collecting them.

“Is it really possible that Igbo will not be among these 839,720 persons? I am saying this because the allegation you referred to is not just from our Oshodi office. We hear about it at other local councils,” he said.

Oyekanmi observed that the issue came up recently when a professor of Political Economy, Pat Utomi, visited the Commission’s Oshodi office based on the same allegation, and addressed a press conference there, which he (Oyekanmi) said was totally unexpected of someone in his position.

He said: “Seun Okinbaloye of Channels asked our Lagos Resident Electoral Commission (REC) about it. His response was that many of those complaining about not getting their PVCs actually registered twice. They moved from their former residence/state and would like to vote in Lagos.

“There is nothing wrong with that. However, instead of applying for a transfer of their polling unit (from where they relocated to Lagos), they went ahead and registered a second time, which is against our laws.

“Our policy is not to print PVCs for double registrants, because his/her card would have been printed already and will be among the uncollected PVCs.

“Let me emphasize this: If they had applied for a transfer, which is the right thing to do, our system would have treated their application on its merit. But by registering twice, which is an infraction, our system will not allow their attempt to get a second PVC.

“So, this is not about withholding PVCs belonging to a particular ethnic group. To me, it is an impractical thing to do. We have Igbo among our Lagos office staff (in senior positions) and you cannot discriminate against any ethnic group if you want to succeed as an organization.”