Political parties nominate 1.57m PU agents for 2023 elections – INEC, as LP tops list

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said a total of 1,574,301 polling unit (PU) agents were nominated by the 18 registered political parties in the country ahead of the 2023 General Elections slated for February 25 and March 11, this year.

INEC which released the figures, Monday, also disclosed that Kano State topped the list of polling agents deployed by political parties, as the newly-forged Labour Party/ African Democratic Congress (ADC) alliance with a combined total of 134,874/ 96,034 polling agents for the latter, emerged with the highest number of accredited party agents at polling units across the country.

Nigeria has 176,846 polling units but elections would only take place in 176,606 as 240 of the total number have no registered voters, according to INEC.

In a statement titled; “Summary of Polling Unit and Collation Centre agents submitted by political parties, INEC disclosed that a total of 1,574,301 polling unit (PU) agents were nominated by the 18 registered political parties for the 2023 polls.

The party agents are expected to work in the INEC designated 176,974 polling units for the forthcoming general elections.

In the INEC report, the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has the single highest number of PU agents with 176,588, followed by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) with 176,233. The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has 176,200, while the Labour Party LP has 134,874.

All the political parties also nominated a total 68,057 collation agents and 27 agents for the National Collation Centre.

In terms of states, Kano has the highest number of party polling unit agents with 145,393 from three political parties of APC, PDP and NNPP; followed by Lagos with a combined 98,646 total from the same three political parties; while Rivers follows with a combined 79,795.

According to the INEC, the LP flagbearer, Dr Peter Obi has now emerged the Presidential candidate with the most polling agents in the forthcoming election with a combined total of 230,908 agents.

INEC lists states with uncollected PVCs

In another development, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has listed states in the country with the highest number of uncollected Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) by eligible voters, ahead of the 2023 General Elections.

According to INEC, the affected eligible voters were not able to collect their PVCs before the February 5 collection window deadline.

INEC has insisted that voters without PVCs will not be allowed to vote, as no fewer than 4,175,006 registered voters in 10 states of the federation will not vote in the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Among the 10 states whose data on the number of PVCs collected and unclaimed were ready by last weekend, Lagos came tops with 928,951 unclaimed PVCs. Lagos is followed by Oyo, which has about 800,000 uncollected PVCs; Kano (468,314), and Ogun (412,086).

The rest are Osun (391,145); Niger (353,344); Ondo (303,955); Kwara (218,078); Plateau (184,744) and Cross River (114,389).

In Lagos, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Olusegun Agbaje, said 6,708, 451 about 87/87 per cent of the 7,637,402 registered voters collected their PVCs in the state.

This leaves 928,951 about 12.16 per cent registrants who were unable to collect their PVCs.

A breakdown of the figures according to a document obtained from the commission’s office in Lagos, shows

In Kano, a document from the INEC office showed that 468,314 registrants could not obtain their PVCs when the exercise ended on February 25.

According to the document of the 399,856 unclaimed PVCs in 2019, only 28,077 have been collected leaving a balance of 371,779 unclaimed.

During the 2021/2022 Continuous Voters Registration (CVR), exercise, 444,626 voters were listed of which 368,052 PVCs were distributed leaving 76,574 uncollected.

In like manner, of 66,479 voters that did transfers, 19,951 could not pick up the cards while 46,518 people did.

In Osun State, 1,955,657 persons registered as voters with the INEC but the number of PVCs collected as of February 5, 2023 is 1,564,512.

This leaves 391,145 unpicked PVCs at the commission’s office in the state.

In Niger State, 212,329 PVCs were collected while 87,329 remain uncollected for those registered during the CVR collection window.

For the transfer of the voters cards, 69,009 were collected while 40,901were uncollected.

Resident Electoral Commissioner, Niger State, Ahmed Yisua Ahmed, who disclosed that the total PVC from 2019 collected is 2,443,463 while 225,114 remain uncollected.

In Plateau State, the breakdown of the PVC collection revealed that from the 2019 batch, 18, 466 PVCs were collected while 49,835 remains uncollected.

In the 2021/2022 batch, there were 292,949 fresh registration out of which 211,123 PVCs representing 72% were collected while 81,826 remain uncollected.

For those who did transfers, 242,600 PVCs were received out of which 189,517 representing 76% were collected while 53,083 remained uncollected.

In Kwara, no fewer than 218,078 PVCs have not been collected just as 415,860 was collected recently.

Spokesman of INEC in the state, Ibrahim Bolaji, said 1,565,829 PVCs had been collected since 2019.

In Ondo, 1,687,389 PVCs have been collected while 303,955 are yet to be collected.

Administrative Secretary of INEC, in the state, Oyelami Oyekola Oludayo, who confirmed this, said that “this is out of a total of 1,991,344 registered voters in the state.

In Cross River, the INEC disclosed that out of the 331,427 persons who registered since 2019 only 217,038 have collected their PVCs.

The Commission’s Spokesperson, Mrs. Tonia Nwobi, said that 217, 038 PVCs have also been distributed out of 331,427 PVCs received.

She further gave the break down as follows: 2019 PVCs collected is 16,338 out of 97,318; 2021/2022 fresh registration PVCs collected is 200,700 out of 234,109 received; and 2021/2022 transferred PVCs collected is 42,186 out of 71,885 received.

In Oyo, the INEC said it was still compiling the list as of press time however, a source at the commission said about 800,000 PVCs have not been collected.

In Ogun State, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Niyi Ijalaye, said: “A total of two million, six hundred and eighty-eight thousand (2,688,305) voters were registered in Ogun State, of which two million, two hundred and seventy-six thousand, two hundred and nineteen (2,276,219) PVCs were collected by their owners as at the end of the exercise on 5th February, 2023”.

He added that 412,086 PVCs have not been collected in the state.

Breakdown of INEC figures on uncollected PVCs:

Old PVCs received – 6,570,291

Old PVCs collected – 5, 747,651

Uncollected old PVCs – 822,640 (12.52%)

New PVCs received — 1,067,111

New PVCs collected — 960,800 (90.04%)

Uncollected new PVCs — 106,311 (9.96%)

Total PVCs received — 7,637,402

Total PVCs collected — 6,708,451 (87.87%)

Overall uncollected PVCs — 928,951 (12.16%)