Senator Expresses Worry Over PVC Distribution

Senator Florence Ita-
Giwa, has expressed concern over the distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in Bakassi Local Government Area of Cross River, saying several registered voters in the area were yet to collect theirs.
Ita-Giwa, a member of the Women Mobilisation Committee of the PDP presidential campaign, made the remark last Wednesday in Calabar while interacting with newsmen.
Our correspondent  learnt that out of a total of 6,325 PVCs produced in July 2014 for registered voters in Bakassi, only 1,218 had been distributed as at January 27, 2015.
Ita-Giwa attributed the few numbers of registered voters who had collected their cards to the fact that most of them currently live in Cameroon.
She said: “The challenge we have right now is the distribution of the PVCs.
“At the time of registration, most of our people went back to Cameroon to farm.
“Luckily, the Cameroonian Government cooperated with us because these Bakassi indigenes are living in Cameroon as Nigerians.
“We sent boats there to bring them to register but unfortunately at the time the PVC was being distributed, they could not come.
“That was the period we had Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Nigeria and Cameroonian authority shut their borders.
“Now that the Ebola threat is no longer there, we have made arrangement for the people to come back and collect their PVCs and wait to cast their votes.’’
Ita-Giwa promised that Bakassi indigenes would cast their votes in the February 2015 elections.
She said that the PDP would cooperate with INEC to ensure they were not disenfranchised.
“What happened during the February 2012 governorship election in Cross River State cannot happen again because we will not allow such thing to happen twice.
“As a matter of fact, the party wrote a letter to INEC advising it to conduct elections in all designated polling units in Bakkasi, especially in Day Spring 1 and 2,’’ she said.