The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended the deadline for the collection of permanent voter cards (PVC) by three days.
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, announced this during a meeting with resident electoral commissioners (RECs) in Abuja on Friday.
The initial deadline for the collection was on Friday.
But Yakubu said it is being extended till February 11 to ensure that no registered voter is disenfranchised.
He said the collection will now be done from 9am to 6pm daily.
“The collection of PVCs scheduled to end today Friday, February 8, is hereby extended nationwide to Monday, February 11. This will include Saturday and Sunday,” he said.
“All state offices are hereby directed to review the procedure for the collection of PVCs and dedicate all the staff of the local government offices to the collection process.”
“The commission wishes to reassure Nigerians that we will continue to take every necessary step to ensure that no registered voter is disenfranchised on account of non-eollection of PVCs.”
He added that the commission is also taking urgent steps to address complaints of unavailability of the PVCs of some registered voters before the end the deadline for the collection.
“We wish to reiterate that after the deadline of Monday, all uncollected PVCs will be recalled and deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for safe-keeping until after the general elections when the collection of cards and the continuous registration of voters will resume,” Yakubu said.
This means registered voters will be able to collect their PVCs till four days to the presidential election scheduled for February 16.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had earlier asked the commission to extend the deadline.