The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called on the people of Kwara to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

The state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Alhaji Attahiru Madami, made the appeal at a stakeholders meetimg ahead of the 2023 general election.

Madami said that from 2011 to 2019 INEC had a total number of 233,856 uncollected PVCs, adding that “out of this only 20,752 were collected as at Oct. 2022 leaving over 193,000 uncollected.

“Out of the 46,602 new PVCs received from the INEC headquarters in the state only 18,885 had been collected with a balance of 27,602 awaiting collection.

“We are still having a lot of challenges in the state in terms of PVCs collection,” the REC said.

On incident PVCs collection, he hinted that the state had 20,506, adding that only 6,055 had so far been collected with 14,451 yet to be collected.

According to him, the state has 43,008 invalid registration figures, one of the least in the country.

The REC said that the state currently has 1,689,288 registration figures as opposed to 1,401,895 in 2019.

“Completed registration figures are 330,401 and valid registration figures are 287,393,” he said.

The state Commissioner of Police, Paul Odama, warned politicians not to “feed” their supporters with hard drugs.Odama said: “Politicians should do well to embark on issue-based campaigns and no personality based campaigns.

“They should ensure that their followers are civil in all their actions.

“They should shun thuggery and damage to billboards of opposing parties.

“As enshrined in the Electoral Law, vote-buying and selling will not be allowed.

“On our part, we will do all within our powers to support and collaborate with stakeholders to ensure that our democracy is firmly rooted in the country.

“Finally, the police and other security agents in the state have, at different times, strategise on how the elections will be free and credible,” said the police boss.

(NAN)