The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended the collection of voters’ cards to the 8,809 registration areas/wards.

INEC said in a statement that the exercise will begin from January 16 to 21, including Saturday and Sunday.

The statement was issued weekend by INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye.

He said the PVC collection which is at present being done at the commission’s local government offices.

Mr. Okoye said a total of 14,283,734 new voters were registered during the Continuous Voters’ Registration (CVR) exercise between April 27, 2017 and August 31, 2018.

He added that the Commission printed the PVCs of the new registrants and delivered them to the states.

“Following appeals by members of the public and its desire to make it easier for Nigerians to collect their PVCs, the Commission held its regular weekly meeting on Thursday 10th January 2019 and took the following decisions among others: Collection of the PVCs by members of the public, which is being done presently at the commission’s local government offices, is to be devolved to the 8,809 registration areas/wards from 16th to 21st January 2019 (including Saturday and Sunday).

“After 21st January 2019, collection of PVCs will revert to the Commission’s Local Government Offices and other designated centres to be determined by the states until 8th February 2019, being the last day for collection. There will be no extension for the collection of PVCs after the 8th day of February 2019. All uncollected PVCs will be retrieved and kept in a secured place till the general elections are over,” Okoye said.

While saying that there shall be no collection of PVCs by proxy, he added that INEC, in the spirit of transparency, will give account of the number of PVCs collected and the balance from previous registrations and urged all registered voters, are yet to collect their PVCs, to seize the opportunity to do so.