In a statement on Wednesday 6th February, 2019, The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that 409,813 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from eight local government areas of Borno State would be casting their votes in camps within and outside Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.
The IDPs referred to by INEC are members of the communities in the North-east state of Borno who have been affected from their communities by the activities of the dreaded Boko Haram Terrorist Groups who have repeatedly terrorised the people in these communities in a battle to claim territories for over 10 years in Borno State.
This statement was made by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr Ibrahim, at an interactive session organised by journalists, political parties, civil society organisations and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) for election officials. He further stated that INEC has registered 2,315,956 voters who are expected to participate in the polls. According to him, INEC has in the last two years, registered over 504,000 new voters whose Permanent Voters Card (PVC) have been produced and are available for collection. He also stated that at the moment over 300,000 PVCs are yet to be collected.
Mr Ibrahim stated that INEC started the continuous voter registration in April 2017 and it was concluded on the 31st of December 2018 and during the registration exercise, 504,000 new voters were registered which of course was (were) added to our former existing registered voters of about 1.8 million to arrive at the 2,315,956 voters
He further stated that the PVCs were printed and delivered to Borno State and the commission has since been allowing people to come for collection of their PVCs. Initially, the commission had issues with people not coming to collect. But with adequate publicity, the commission now have up to 300,000 out of the 500, 000 that are yet to be collected now. He also expressed hope that in the next three days, people will come out to collect their PVCs.
Mr. Ibrahim also added that INEC has also said engaged and trained 22,000 electoral officials that would be deployed to all the designated polling units in the state during the forthcoming elections.
