The Resident Electoral Commissioner , Ogun State , Prof . AbdulGaniy Raji , has said there are 631 , 634 uncollected Permanent Voter Cards in the state.
Raji , who noted that the state was ready for the elections , added that INEC was not happy with the number of uncollected PVCs .
He spoke on Friday during a press conference with journalists at the INEC headquarters at Magbon , Abeokuta .
The REC explained that the state had taken delivery of sensitive electoral materials .
He said , “ We have 2 , 375 , 003 registered voters in Ogun State . As I speak , at the suspension of collection of Permanent Voter Cards on Monday , we have 631 , 634 voters that have yet to collect their PVCs . That is about a quarter of registered voters . By implication , 75 per cent of voters have their PVCs .
“ You may look at the number of unclaimed PVCs as high , but in terms of percentage , Ogun State fares better than other states . We are still not happy with the number of unclaimed PVCs , but we will continue the distribution after the elections . ”
Raji said the commission was collaborating with security agencies to ensure the protection of sensitive electoral materials in remote areas .
He explained that specialised ballot papers for the blind , glasses and other aids for people with disabilities would also be made available for the elections .
“ As far as we are concerned in INEC , we are no more talking of preparation , we are talking of the election. We are talking of how far we have gone because election already started yesterday ( Thursday ) . According to our time- table , sensitive materials have already been dispatched to all the local government areas in the state .
“ In our LGAs , we are already expecting our corps members. From 6 pm , all our ad - hoc staff would be at the registration centres where they would stay overnight .
“ So , we are fully prepared, and we have done all the necessary things we should do , ” he added .
However , the National Secretary of the Committee for the Defence of Human Right and the leader of election observers in Ogun State , Yinka Folarin , has lamented the lack of accreditation kits for observers .
Folarin , who said residents were eager to vote, stressed that observers were denied access to kits .
He said , “ I have seen the level of preparation and I think it is a bit okay. But I am disappointed that they have refused to update us on why they could not make necessary logistics available for observers. When I say logistics , I mean observers ’ kits . The information we are getting is that they have insufficient kits and even some of those kits have not arrived from Abuja in less than 18 hours to the election.
“ This is one of the things we have been telling them; everything should not come from Abuja . It should be decentralised . As I speak, some of our members don ’ t have tags because they have yet to arrive from Abuja.
“ INEC started earlier than to fail . They have no excuse, except they don ’ t want us to observe the election. ”
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