60,000 PVCs unclaimed in Zamfara – Speaker

About 60,000 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) have remained unclaimed by their owners in Zamfara, Speaker of the state Assembly, Alhaji Sanusi Rikiji has said.

Rikiji who leads a state mobilisation committee on voters registration, made the disclosure when the committee visited Kaura-Namoda and Talata-Mafara on Wednesday.

He described the situation as “very worrying” and appealed to those who had not collected their PVCs to do so immediately.

Rikiji said the committee’s mandate was to sensitise eligible voters to partake in the ongoing continuous voter registration and encourage those yet to collect their cards to do so.

“It is very disheartening to hear that from April to July, 2017 only 25 PVCs were collected across the state.

“We are mandated by the state government to arrange ways of mobilising, educating and sensitising the public on the importance of voter registration and collection of PVCs.

“Apart from this committee headed by me, we had set up other committees across the three senatorial districts, 14 local government areas and 147 wards across the state to ensure effective mobilization.

“We have already inaugurated these committees in Gusau and Kaura-Namoda emirates, we are now in Talata-Mafara to inaugurate the committees for Zamfara West Senatorial District and Talata-Mafara local government area,” he said.

Earlier, the Emir of Talata-Mafara, Alhaji Bello Muhammad-Barmo, who is also the chairman of the local government sub-committee on voters’ mobilisation, pledged to work hard to ensure that eligible voters participate in the exercise.