The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III has said that he is yet to get the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Permanent Voters Card, (PVC) few weeks to the 2015 general elections, even as he urged President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure that the elections are credible.
The Sultan, who welcome President Jonathan to his palace today, as the former paid him courtesy visit before he commenced his campaign in Sokoto town expressed fears that there are millions eligible voters who might end up not getting their PVCs before the election
The Sultan asked President Jonathan to ensure that INEC provides all eligible voters with their cards, even as he also asked the President to ensure that government takes every steps to respect the peoples wishes and deliver credible, free and fair elections.
“Let’s respect people’s wishes, let’s not try to disenfranchise anybody. We have had issues of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) and I want to tell you that even myself, I don’t have a PVC, so it means I will not vote on 14th February.
“So, we have to look for a way out, it is for your government to now look for what to do, how to ensure that all the cards get to the voters before the voting day or in the alternative, find a way out because in any problem there is a solution and we believe you will find solution as regard this very serious hitch facing us because millions of Nigerians seem to be heading towards disenfranchisement and they won’t be able to vote but I have heard comments from the INEC Chairman, we are still waiting for our cards to come.”
The Sultan said the difficulties by many Nigerians to obtain the PVC is a source of worry and other leaders, adding that this might lead to millions of Nigerians being disenfranchised during this year’s general elections. [myad]
