The Akwa Ibom State Resident National Electoral Commissioner, Mr Austin Okojie, has revealed that 1,328,715 Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) or about 91.4 per cent have so far been distributed in the state ahead of the next month general election.

The State INCE boss who disclosed this at a stakeholder’s forum consisting of the representative of political parties, security agencies, media and civil society organisations, said a total of 1,462,780 PVCs were received in the state for distribution.

Okojie equally hinted that the commission had taken delivery of 3,813 card readers to be distributed at each of the polling unit in the state for accreditation of voters before the actual voting indicating that the distribution of the PVCs had improved in the last two weeks in the state.

The state INEC commissioner, who spoke on the theme: “INEC Preparation Towards The 2015 General Elections”, further made known that each card reader was configured to suit a specific polling unit and was not transferable.

Warning against any form of malpractices, Okojie said the accreditation of eligible voters would be done using the card reader’s machine on the presentation of the PVCs.

Okojie said, “Reading of the voters’ permanent cards would take only three minutes per each voter”.

He assured the stakeholders that the card reading machines were new ones and would do the accreditation effectively within the stipulated period of 8 am and 1 pm.

The commissioner advised all stakeholders to embrace peace before, during and after the elections in the state stressing that the greatest challenge of 2015 elections was the violent conduct of politicians.

The State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, who was represented by his Deputy, Mrs. Valerie Ebe, noted that the power of the people lied in their votes.
Akpabio urged the people to conduct themselves in a peaceful manner during the period of the elections as well as ensuring that their votes count in the forthcoming elections.

Emphasising that the conduct of peaceful elections was everybody’s responsibility, the Governor lauded INEC for organising the forum on the enlightenment of the public on its preparation for free and fair conduct of next month elections.