Kaduna — The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cautioned politicians against playing politics with the permanent voter cards (PVCs), stressing that all the cards are in the country and ready for collection.

Speaking at an interactive session on the 2015 elections organised by the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) in conjunction with INEC, the Director-General of Electoral Institute of INEC, Prof Abubakar Momoh, said everybody should endevour to collect their PVCs, stressing that nobody should use PVCs to blackmail the electorate.

He said, “Some politicians are trying to play politics with PVCs and they are trying to use it to blackmail people. All the cards are in the country and are ready for collection. Everybody should go and collect their PVCs and nobody should use it to blackmail anyone again. Why are politicians afraid of PVCs in the first place? The reason is very simple: the PVC has a high security protection that has made election rigging very difficult. That is why politicians are not comfortable with it. There is no place for them to hide because rigging is in the past tense in Nigeria. Rather than disturbing themselves and thinking of ways they can manipulate with the PVCs, they should just face the issues and tell the public what they want to do for them.

“For instance, many of the 9,000 PVCs that were snatched in Rivers and Edo states are now being returned because they have discovered it is useless for them. The only thing the politicians are now doing is to go to the stronghold of their opponents where they know that they will not be voted for and buy off the PVCs so that the voters cannot vote. Apart from that, there is no way they can rig with the introduction of the PVCs.”