The Independent National Elections Commission(INEC) has come out strongly to affirm that PVCs issued by INEC thus far including those issued in 2011 are still valid and can be used by their respective owners in all elections.
The commission has also implored Nigerians to disregard purveyors of falsehood who may wish to create baseless panic among the electorate.
This position was made clear by Mr. Rotimi Lawrence Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman. He said “The Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) issued by INEC in 2011 and after can be still be used by their respective owners to vote in all elections, including the upcoming Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council Elections, the Ekiti and Osun Governorship elections, as well as the 2023 General Election. To be sure, PVCs issued in 2011 and after do not need any revalidation.:
Oyekanmi said It is also not true that the Commission will use the so-called “New Card Reader” for the 2023 General Election.
He further clarified that “What the Commission intends to use is a multi-purpose gadget, known as the INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED). It is currently being used for the physical registration of voters. During an election, it will facilitate the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which provides for both fingerprint and facial authentication. “
The device will also be used to upload individual polling unit election results to the INEC Result Viewing portal (IReV) in real-time on election day.
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Oyekanmi advised that “The general public should therefore disregard the fake news making the rounds that the PVCs issued in 2011 need revalidation. There is no need to revalidate any PVC issued by INEC for election purposes.”
It would be recalled that the same false claim had earlier been made by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, an APC national leader and presidential aspirant who was heard in a trending video asking his supporters to go and take part in the ongoing ‘new registration’ because “the PVC you have has expired”. Tinubu has since apologized for giving out that wrong information.
