Mrs Toke Benson-Awoyinka, the Assistant Legal Adviser, APC Lagos State, on Sunday urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state to deploy more staff to wards for distribution of unclaimed Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
Benson-Awoyinka, a House of Representatives hopeful in Ikeja Federal Constituency, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
According to him, the commission does not need to wait until few days to the 2019 general elections before taking the cards closer to the people.
The legal practitioner, who said that INEC offices were far from where people were residing, added that lack of enough staff to attend to people equally slowed down the process of collection.
“How many staff does INEC have to attend to people? Go out there to get your PVCs, you will see two staff attending to thousand of people.
“So, the issue of the clog in PVCs collection is from INEC. The commission has to decentralise this process of distribution to wards and deploy adequate staff,” the aspirant said.
According to her, community leaders and other stakeholders should be engaged to ensure the cards gets to their owners.
Benson-Awoyinka observed that limited centres, machines and staff prevented so many eligible voters from registering at the just-concluded Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise of the commission.
The aspirant, who urged the commission to continue simplifying its processes and make them less stressful, added that many people would have picked up their cards if the process had not been cumbersome.
According to him, the unclaimed PVCs will be collected by their owners if the commission takes it closer to the people and deploys adequate staff for advocacy and enlightenment.
She promised to change the face of representation and empowerment for women and youths in Ikeja Federal Constituency if given the privilege to represent the constituency at the National Assembly.
INEC had said that no fewer than 1.38 million PVCs were yet to be claimed by their owners in the state.
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