Ven. Joseph Venerable Joseph Unuayan National Director, Civic/Political Affairs Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion has alerted and warned Nigerians going to the polls tomorrow 25 February 2023 to be armed with their Permanent Voters Card ( PVC) as the only and sure ticket that makes them eligible to cast their votes.
Participating on a daily discussion programme “Now Streaming” on Advent Cable Network Nigeria Television ACNNTV , Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion-owned TV, Venerable Unuayan emphasised that there was no more ‘ wuruwuru’ meaning cutting corners to vote.
He said unlike before you could go to identify yourself through the incident form or any other identification, but this year only your PVC is” the only passport to cast your vote. Even if you are identified by BVAS without your PVC you won’t be allowed to vote. ”
He stressed that selling or buying PVC ” are just wasting their time Go and reclaim your PVC and for those who are selling or buying is a wasteful exercise.
The anchor of the programme with the topic: 2023 General Elections- INEC and CONAC Preparations, Canon Smart Simon asked what then would happen to those millions of voters cards recovered from the Bush somewhere in the Eastern part of the country.
Venerable Unuayan said that was a criminal offence as those recovered PVCs had disenfranchised millions of eligible voters. “Those cards are useless if owners cannot take possession of them..”
He empathize with those PVCSs had been stolen by unscrupulous person who perhaps did not want election to take place in the Local Government.
He asked the INEC to invite its officials in that area for questioning anf if found culpable they should be sanctioned.
On Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) which is an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters – using the voters’ fingerprints –…Venerable Unuayan explained this would work alongside with manual collation of results.
” There are going to be manual collation from the wards to Local Government centers where all party agents would authenticate the results in the presence of INEC collation officers. There after the BVA will snap it and forwarded direct to INEC Headquarters in Abuja.
” So the issue of someone tampering with the results has been eliminated.
Co discussant on the programme, Rev. Can. Futurebilly Onyeche Jonathan, Director for Civic and Political Affairs, Diocese of Kubwa said he was satisfied with the level of preparedness of INEC and the security that had been put in place by the law enforcement agencies especially the police.
He gave kudos to President Muhammadu Buhari for telling Nigerians that he would see to a free and fair elections as ” he is aware that the whole world is focusing on Nigeria.