Senator Oluremi Tinubu, senator representing Lagos Central Senatorial District on Sunday urged the Federal Government to declare public holidays for collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs), ahead of the December 2018 deadline.
Her statement was sequel to revelations by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that over seven million PVCs were yet to be collected nationwide, with one million and four hundred thousand from Lagos State.
Tinubu in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos, said that the PVCs were the tools towards participating in the forthcoming 2019 general elections.
She also urged INEC to extend deadline of collection of PVCs.
Tinubu said “With previous elections, Nigerians developed voter apathy due to a distrust of the system.
” The 2015 elections taught us, however, that as individuals, our votes count. Thus, we must rise up as citizens to fulfill our civic responsibility and ensure accountability in governance.
“Towards the 2019 elections, INEC had released modalities for ongoing continuous voter registration. The centres open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.
“The period should be extended; and should include weekends to allow people who were unable to visit the centres during work hours to do so at weekends.
“INEC should ensure that it had adequate resources to make the process quick and easy.”
She further called for increased voter education and sensitisation to achieve the desired results.