Hon. Sanai Agunbiade (S.O.B), the Majority Leader of the Lagos State House of Assembly has assured constituents of Ikorodu 1 constituency that obstacles related to the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) would be addressed to ensure smooth handling and collection.
Agunbiade made this known during the Eight Annual Constituency Stakeholders Meeting at the Lagos State University Science and Technology.
The theme for the stakeholders’ meeting is: “2023 General Elections: The Imperatives of Permanent Voters’ Card (PVCs).
Agunbiade, added that all the difficulties highlighted by various stakeholders would certainly be tabled before the House for prompt review and to fashion out better options.
The lawmaker also urged eligible voters whose PVCs were ready to ensure its collection in readiness for the forthcoming 2023 general election.
He emphasized the imperative of the PVCs, urging his constituents to make effort to get registered in the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise.
The lawmaker praised his constituency for their responsiveness to matters affecting the communities.
Agunbiade who was clearly piqued by the unclaimed 20million PVCs across the nation, harped on the adverse implications that figure poses, as millions of Nigerians would be disenfranchised and thus unable to participate during the 2023 general election.
He commended the good work of the past governors of lagos state starting from Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Mr Babatunde Fashola, Akinwunmi Ambode and the efforts of Governor Babajide Sanwoolu.
The lawmaker said they had ensure job creation, employment, empowerment, waste disposal, safety and security, business opportunities and so on, in the state.
Also speaking, Mr Azeez Oloshugbo a stakeholder in the community, urged INEC to increase their staff strength as more residents were interested in participating in the forthcoming election.
Oloshugbo added that the officials should bring the registration closer to the people by moving around all the communities of the constituency 1, instead of staying in their office.
“I think it will be better if the officials can move around to make it easier for collection and for new registrations,” he said.
Mrs Olutoyin Aiyeleso, Ikorodu resident INEC officer said their demands could only be possible if the community provided land and built another office for their operation.
She said efforts were being put in place to move collection and registration points to different communities adding that there were lots of PVCs yet to be collected by Ikorodu residents.
“What you are requesting for can only be done if you provide space and construct another INEC office.
“The office was built by INEC and we are just members of staff, so we don’t have capacity to move our office to another place,” she said.
Also speaking, the Eweye of Isiu, Oba Olukayode David, said it was time for residents to know that they needed to have their PVCs as weapon for government’s attention for infrastructural development.
The parley witnessed a massive turn out of market men and women, artisans, traditional rulers, businessmen, educationists, security personnel, religious leaders, students amongst others.
In Oshodi/Isolo constituency 2, Hon. Jude Idimogu who represents them in the Lagos State House of Assembly stated that the parley is to educate the electorates on the importance of voters’ card.
He said, “The meeting is to remind constituents that their voters’ card is a major eligibility factor to participate in the 2023 general elections.
“Their PVC will also qualify them to vote for in the forthcoming general elections”Idimogu noted.
“It is to sensitise constituents on the need to participate actively in the nation’s electoral processes.”
Idimogu reminded the constituents to register and collect their PVC and vote for APC’s standard flagbearers in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.