A total of 87,209,007 Nigerians out of 93.4 million registered citizens are eligible to vote, according to the number of Permanent Voter Cards collected by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday. Decision Day, when Nigerians will go to the polls to choose the country’s next president and National Assembly members, is less than 24 hours away (PVCs).
With over 6.2 million registered voters failing to obtain their PVCs, this amounts to almost 93.3% of all voters in the country.
For those who registered for the first time, applied to transfer their PVCs, or demanded replacements, around 13.6 million new PVCs were printed, according to INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who provided the statistics at the daily briefing held at the national collation center in Abuja.
Lagos State, with 6,214,970 PVCs acquired, is in first place overall. With 5,594,193, Kano is in second place, followed by Kaduna (4,164,473), Katsina (3,459,945), and Rivers (3,285,785 PVCs) as of February 5, 2023. With 958,052, Ekiti had the fewest PVCs collected. The three states with the most uncollected PVCs are Lagos (845,225), Oyo (515,254), and Ogun (410,281). The greatest PVC collection rate, at 99 percent, was in Bauchi, with 2,749,268 total registered voters; 2,721,780 PVCs were collected. Yakubu gave the Nigerian people assurance that the Commission was ready for the election.
Nigeria’s borders must be closed to conduct the polls, the Federal Government said yesterday night. This information was released in a press release from Isah Idris’ office, the Comptroller General (CG) of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).
Nigeria’s land borders would be shut down starting at midnight on Saturday till midnight on Sunday, according to Idris. Hence, all command controllers, particularly those in the border states, have been ordered by Nigeria’s top agency responsible for border management to ensure that the directive is strictly followed.
Ahead of the elections on Saturday, President Muhammadu Buhari arrived in Daura, his hometown in Katsina State, on Thursday. He won’t be on the ballot for the first time since the 2003 election.
At precisely 4:41 p.m., the presidential jet landed at the Umaru Musa Yar’adua Airport. Ten minutes later, the jet’s doors were opened to allow the President and his entourage to disembark and travel to Daura on a white helicopter.
