According to News Express, the North is maintaining a strong lead in the number of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) so far distributed as Nigeria counts down to the February 14, 2015 presidential election, a study by research-oriented rights group has disclosed.
News Express reports that an Executive Summary of PVC distribution in the country’s six geopolitical zones as at last Tuesday, January 27 released this morning in Onitsha by the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) indicated that there would likely be millions more voters in the North due to the failure to give a large number of registered southerners their PVCs. Below is the Executive Summary of PVC distribution prepared by Intersociety Board Chairman Emeka Umeagbalasi:
North-West Zone:
(a) Total registered voters 18,616,499.
(b) Total PVCs distributed 12,794,880.
(c) Total disenfranchised 5,871,619 (note: this includes over four/five million Igbo resident in Kano, Kaduna, etc, who fled and are still fleeing owing to Islamist insurgency abandoning their PVCs in INEC).
North-Central Zone:
(a) Total registered voters 10,592,958.
(b) Total PVCs distributed 5,859,562.
(c) Total disenfranchised 4,733,396.
North-East Zone (troubled by Boko Haram insurgency):
(a) Total registered voters 10,447,410.
(b) Total PVCs distributed 6,678,148.
Total disenfranchised 3,769,262.
South-West Zone:
(a) Total registered voters 13,188,854.
(b) Total PVCs distributed 6,403,534 (7th January figure – 6,419,003, in deficit of 15, 469).
Total disenfranchised 6,785,320.
South-South Zone:
(a) Total registered voters 9,486,811.
(b) Total PVCs distributed 6,214,977.
Total disenfranchised 3,271,834.
South-East Zone:
(a) Total registered voters 7,178,185.
Total PVCs distributed 4,378,329.
Total disenfranchised 2,799,856.
FCT (Federal Capital Territory-Abuja):
(a) Total Registered Voters 892,628,
(b) PVCs distributed 459,913.
Total disenfranchised 432,715.
Analysis:
Total PVCs distributed in twenty days (from 7th January to 27th January, 2015) = 4,004,948
Total PVCs distributed in ten days = 2,002,474
Total PVCs distributed since 2014 up till 27th January, 2015 = 42,779,339 (note: these official accounts have not been independently verified)
Total Nigerian registered voters disenfranchised as of date = 26,054,137
Total PVCs not yet produced and delivered to INEC as at 27th January 2015 = 10,491,866.
Total Registered Voters as of September 2014 as contained in the INEC’s National Register of Voters = 70,383,427
Total Registered Voters randomly and arbitrarily deleted by INEC leading to issuance of a new figure of 68,833,476 = 1,543,961
State-by-State breakdown of the deleted registered voters of 1,543,961 = not given by INEC till date
State-by-State breakdown of 68,833,476 registered voters penciled down to vote in the February polls = not given by INEC till date.
Further Analysis:
Total Registered Voters as at 27/1/2015, in the entire North including the FCT; using INEC’s supplied data of September 2014 = 40,549,586
Total Registered Voters in the entire South using same data = 29,853,850
Total number of PVCs holders in the entire North as at 27th January, 2015 = 25,332,590
Total number of PVCs holders in the entire South as at same date = 16,996,840
Total number of Registered Voters that received their PVCs in the entire North from 7th January to 27th January 2015 = 2,950,113.
Total number of Registered Voters that received theirs in the entire South in the same period = 845,542.
Shocking Findings:
News Express equally noted from the report that the number of distributed PVCs in five States in the North-West (Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi and Jigawa) – 10,527,308; is equal in number with those distributed in the entire eleven States of the South-South and the South-East zones (10,593,306). That is to say that whereas there are 10,527,308 PVC holders in the five States of the North-West zone alone, there are 10,593,306 PVCs holders in the entire eleven States of the South-South and the South-East zones.
There are 6,678,148 PVCs distributed in the troubled North-East, whereas only 4,378,329 PVCs holders are available in the five peaceful States of the South-East.
The number of PVCs distributed as at 27th January 2015 in the 13 States of the North-West and the North-East (Boko Haram insurgency area) is much higher than the total number of PVCs distributed in the entire 17 States of the South-West, the South-South and the South-East zones. That is to say that whereas 19,473,028 PVCs have been distributed in the referenced 13 States of the two of the three geopolitical zones of the North; only 16,996,840 PVCs have been distributed in the entire 17 States of the South (News Express).