NO PVC, NO VOTING: ESHINLOKUN-SANNI, ALAWIYE KING, INEC DECRY LAGOSIANS’ LOW PVC COLLECTION AS STAKEHOLDERS MEETING HOLD ACROSS LAGOS
By Oki Samson, Trek Africa Newspaper
L-R: Deputy Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni; Chairman, APC Lagos Island, Alhaji A.G.O Sodiq; Vice Chairman, Lagos Island LCDA, Hon. Eshinlokun; Chairman, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB), Hon. Wahab Alawiye King speech; APC Chieftain, Mr. Jamiu Giwa and others during the 8th Annual Constituency stakeholders’ meetings hosted by Rt. Hon Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Multipurpose Centre on Adeniji Adele road, Lagos Island.
The 8th Annual Constituency stakeholders’ meetings for members of the Lagos House of Assembly have today held statewide across the 40 constituencies in Lagos. Aimed at shoring up voters registration in the metropolis, the conference was themed ‘2023 General Election: the Imperative of Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC)’. This constituency meeting is the last for the Lagos 9th Assembly, Trek Africa Newspaper.
At the Lagos Island 1 centre hosted by the Deputy Speaker of Lagos House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos state, Mr. Olusegun Agbaje ably represented by Mr. Aliyu Sule, emphasized the need for massive voter registration which could culminate in huge voter turnout at the 2023 elections.
L-R: Hon. Oyinlomo Danmole in a warm handshake with Rt. Hon. Wasiu Eshinlokun Sanni
His address revealed: ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, the low rate of PVC collection in Lagos State is worrisome as only 6,382 PVCs out of 34,242 received from the Commission’s Headquarters for the first and second quarters CVR had been collected by their owners. This is just 18.6%. Similarly for the old PVCs, a total of 1,091,157 are still uncollected by their owners.
In view of the foregoing, I want to strongly urge you to continue to assist the Commission in mobilizing the eligible citizens residing in Lagos that are yet to collect their PVCs to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the ongoing collection of PVCs at the INEC LGA offices where they registered to collect their PVCs as anyone without the PVC cannot vote during any election. Simply put, “NO PVC NO VOTING”
‘In Lagos, 640,774 eligible voters had done the online registration before it ended on 30th May, 2022 but as at Monday, 27th June, 2022, only 371,760 have completed their registration and the Commission is making frantic efforts towards ensuring that all eligible citizens are captured before the end of the CVR’, Trek Africa Newspaper gathered.
Deputy Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni giving his speech at the 8th Annual Constituency stakeholders’ meetings
On new innovations by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Lagos REC Agbaje added: ‘It is pertinent to note that the Commission has also taken a bold step in her ongoing efforts to inject technological impetus into the electoral system and has further strengthened the voting process for the conduct of very free, fair, credible and acceptable elections by introducing the Bi-modal Voter Authentication System (BVAS) which enables human recognition through biometric verification mechanism, using fingerprint and facial recognition to replace the Smart Card Readers which only enables human recognition using fingerprint.
The device is also equipped to scan the result of poll at the Polling Unit on form EC8A and send to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal real time to further enhance the transparency of elections.
Accordingly, all stakeholders in the State are being urged to assist the Commission in educating the voters in the State to take advantage and make very good use of the opportunity provided by the new Polling Units by letting them know the need for them to properly utilize the new Polling Units by transferring their voting location to the ones nearest to them in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise at the State office in Yaba or any of the Commission’s offices in the 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) as well as the mobile CVR centres in different Registration Areas/Wards across the State.’
The Deputy Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni urged Lagosians to troop out in their numbers for the PVC collection. ‘Your vote is significant. You know that our father Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is running for presidency and we want him to win. It is not about wishful thinking. It is about action. And you must be equipped. There is nothing more than to collect your PVC.’
‘While commending you, our constituents, for being responsive in matters of our constituency, it is however worrisome that over 20 million PVCs still remain uncollected across the nation according to a recent INEC report. A lot of this number are from Lagos state which will not augur well for our progress, democracy, and development of the state.’
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Lagos Central Senatorial District in the upcoming 2023 elections added: ‘The imperative of the PVC is hinged on the need to ensure that we are eligible to exercise our civic responsibility especially to ensure that we vote the right, credible candidates at all levels of government. This is critical to ensure that there is continuity of our transformative leadership and enduring democracy’.
INEC Representative, Alhaji Aliyu Sule
In the same vein, Trek Africa Newspaper can report that the Chairman of the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB), Hon. Wahab Alawiye King sensitized Lagosians about the importance of PVC collection. ‘We are here to sensitize our constituents about the importance of PVC and the use of it during the 2023 elections. People are becoming more aware and informed but we are appealing to them to get their PVC early. That’s the only way they can impact the elections. We don’t want them to wait till the last minute before getting the PVC’.
Hon. Alawiye King also charged INEC to look into bottlenecks that made some Nigerians shun the collection of the PVCs.
The Lagos Island 1 stakeholders meeting which held at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Multipurpose Centre on Adeniji Adele road, Lagos Island was well attended despite the heavy rains in the morning.
Dignitaries present included Hon. Oyinlomo Danmole, Chief Waheed Ishola representing Oba Rilwan Akiolu, Vice Chairman of Lagos Island LCDA, Hon Eshinlokun, APC Candidate for Lagos State House of Assembly, Princess Hon. Lara Oyekan Olumegbon, Alh. M. A. Taiwo, Alh. Salami Mufutau, Alh. A. G. O. Sodiq, Alh. Jamiu Giwa, Alh. Fashola, Alhaja Abeje Lasisi.
Also in attendance were councillors, LGA officials, party leaders, CDC representatives, among others.
Hon Yusuf Olaigbade with some Party Faithfuls
L-R: Hon. Eletu Moshood; Rt. Hon. Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni and Vice Chairman, Hon Eshinlokun 
