By Kelechi Ugo.
Barely three days to end collection of Permanent Voter Cards,officials of Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC in Imo State have deserted collection centres at Local Governments Headquarters leaving electorates stranded.
Three Council offices of INEC, Owerri Municipal, Mbaitoli and Njaba visited by our correspondent between 10am and 11am on Thursday were not issuing the PVC to electorates as no INEC staff was visible at the venue except in Mbaitoli where a man who identified himself as Martin Ifeadi and a security personnel attached to the Electoral Umpire admitted that the exercise always kick off at 11am and close by 2pm. He advised the electorates to be patient until the arrival of the INEC officials, but many people flopped his advice and angrily left the venue.
A citizen,Awuzie Emmanuel who was among those waiting to collect their PVC,told journalists that he has been waiting at Mbaitoli LGA since 8am and nobody to attend to them,querying why public office holders should abandon their duty posts from their official time to kick start work at 11am. "The security man told us to wait until 11am. He equally told us that the exercise always end by 2pm. Many people have left here. And I think they were paid to disenfranchise our people. Infact,they don't deserve salaries because they are not working like people employed to discharge certain services",he insisted.
It would be recalled that INEC had earlier directed citizens yet to collect their PVC should visit the INEC LGA office where they registered to do so from 9am to 5pm daily on or before 5th February,2023 as no PVC,no voting.
When contacted earlier via celephone, the Imo State Public Relations Officer of INEC,Dr. Chinonye Chijioke Osuji promised to draw the attention of their LGA staff to the ugly incident.
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