2019: INEC relocates polling units to Benue IDP camps

In a bid to ensure that those displaced by herdsmen from their various homes in Benue state were not disenfranchised during next year’s elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday disclosed that it had opened new registration points and relocated some polling units to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps.
The Commission also disclosed that a total 238, 829 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were yet to be collected in Benue state.
The Head of Voter Education, Publicity, Gender and Civil Society in Benue state, Emmanuel Okpe, who revealed this during an interview with newsmen yesterday in Makurdi, disclosed that it had captured 78,829 voters during the continuous voter registration which started April 27, 2017, and ended on August 31, 2018.
He said before the starting of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) in Benue state on April 27, 2017, the Commission had a total of 464,495 registered voters in the state out of which 204,744 PVCs were still unclaimed.
“It may interest you to know that, only 22,999 PVCs were distributed between the beginning of the exercise last year and when it ended on August 31, this year, leaving the Commission with a balance of 181,745 yet to be collected.
During the new registration exercise, the Commission received 78,829 newly printed PVCs brought to the state and 21,754 owners had collected theirs, while 57,075 remained still uncollected,” he said.
Okpe stated that the Commission had decided to opened registration centres at seven internally displaced persons’ camps to register those who fled their areas where there were security challenges in the state.
He stressed that INEC would relocate polling units to those in camps if they were still there by the time elections would hold next year, noting that there was a high level turnout in Benue during the exercise.
He lamented that despite the efforts made by INEC in the state through public enlightenment campaign, some people were still unable to meet up with the exercise until its temporal suspension on Friday, August 3.
Okpe, however, appealed to those who weren’t captured to be patient until after the 2019 general elections when fresh registration would commenced.