Protesters, in their hundreds, again, on Wednesday, stormed the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in Abuja and demanded the postponement of the forthcoming general election by two months.

Eyewitness said the protesters, under the umbrella of the “Coalition of Civil Societies,” alleged marginalisation of the southern part of the country in the ongoing distribution of the permanent voter cards (PVCs).

Led by Amanda Chisom, the coalition claimed that the northern states had received a total of over 73 per cent of the PVCs, while the southern states had received only 46 per cent of the cards.

They alleged that the North West zone had total registered voters of 18 million and had received 14 million or 75 per cent of the distributed PVCs, leaving 2.6 million voters yet to collect their PVCs.

According to the group, the North East had 7.4 million PVCs distributed, with about 2.9 million eligible voters yet to collect their PVCs; the North Central zone has a total registered voter of 10.5 million, with 5.5 million recorded to have collected theirs.

In the South-West, according to the group “there is the registered voters of 13.1 million, out of which 6.4 million or 48.7 per cent of them have received their PVCs and 6.7 million still waiting, while in the South-South, there is a registered voters of 8.9 million, out of which only 3.9 million or 44.1 per cent with PVCs and 4.9 million yet to collect.”

It also said the situation was the same in the South-East, with 7.1 million registered voters, as 3.1 million had collected their PVCS, while 4.1 million of the registered voters already left out.

The leader of the group expressed doubt over the ability of INEC to distribute 24 million PVCs between Wednesday and Sunday.

She insisted that the call for postponement of the election was in line with the Section 132(2) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), which stated that election could be shifted within 90 days.

She said the elections should be shifted till either March or April, to enable the distribution of the PVCs to all eligible voters.