Lagos Lawmaker to use town criers in sensitising constituents on collection

A Lagos lawmaker, Mr Setonji David on Sunday says he will engage town criers to sensitise eligible voters in his constituency on the need for them to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

David, representing Badagry Constituency II at the Lagos State House of Assembly on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

He spoke against the backdrop of the 1.4 million PVCs yet to be collected by their owners across the state.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had said that it was still in possession of 7,920,129 PVCs yet to be collected from its offices across the nation.

A breakdown of the uncollected PVCs as at March 2018 revealed that Lagos state had the highest number of 1,401,390; followed by Oyo, 647,586; and Edo, 449,001 cards, while Kano had 195,941.

The lawmaker said: “It is unfortunate that people have lost interest in electoral system, so much that the chunk of our people has not collected their PVCs to the tune of 1.4million.

“In my constituency, we are trying our best to ensure that people come out to claim their PVCs, to the extent that we engaged town criers. We will engage more town criers.

“We have been using town criers to sensitise the people and we will intensify on it.

‘’We will also make sure we encourage them by providing vehicles to take them to INEC office.

“We are doing our best to let people know why they need to have PVCs and why it is important for them to exercise their civic responsibility.

‘’By that, they can to elect people they want to represent them in government,” he said.

On whether the use of town criers had been effective, David said it had been yielding positive results.

According to him, there is need for continuous sensitisation of the people, especially the stakeholders on the need for them to participate in the electoral processed.

He urged INEC to intensify sensitisation and advocacies on radio, televisions, and other media for voters yet to collect their PVCs to do so.

According to him, INEC must encourage the people to know the importance of participating in electoral processes as well as easing the processes of registration of voters.

“The future of the country is embedded in the PVCs, if it is used rightly, because it is the power of the people to vote for the candidate and party of their choice.

‘’It is the responsibility of INEC to do this, not minding the cost.

“If the people use it to install a credible government, the future will be bright. It has been proved beyond reasonable doubt that democracy is the best form of government.

“Democracy works if the people participate,” David, Chairman, House Committee on Physical Planning and Urban Development said.