The state Head of Service, Hakeem Muri-Okunola, made this announcement in a statement on Wednesday.

The work-free day would commence on Tuesday, January 24, and end on Friday, January 27, 2023, for different grade levels of workers in the public service.

The dates include Tuesday, January 24, 2023, for grade levels 01, 03, 07, and 15; Wednesday, January 25, 2023, for grade levels 02, 04, 08 and 13; Thursday, January 26, 2023, for grade levels 05, 09, 12, and 17; and Friday, January 27, 2023, for grade levels 06, 10, 14 and 16.

He added that the work-free days were approved by the state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for the public servants to collect their voter cards from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC inorder to participate actively in the forthcoming February, March general polls in the country.

According to Muri-Okunola:“Consequent upon the extension of the collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards by the Independent National Electoral Commission, it is hereby notified for the general information that all public servants who are yet to collect their Permanent Voters’ Cards from designated INEC Centers are encouraged to do so before Sunday, January 29, 2023, as it is a civic responsibility to vote.

“To this end, Mr Governor has graciously approved a work-free day to enable public servants to collect their PVCs from their respective local government/local council development areas.

Muri-Okunola, however, urged accounting officers to excuse their officers in respective grade levels on the designated days.

“Consequently, accounting officers and all public servants are to ensure compliance whilst giving this circular the service-wide publicity it deserves,” he said.

Recall that the state government during the voter registration did same, declaring work-free days for its workers to complete their registration for voter cards.

The Head of Department, Voter Education and Publicity, of the commission in Rivers State, Mr Mark Usulor, made this known in a statement issued by the Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mrs Geraldine Ekelemu, on Thursday.

Usulor said from January 16 to January 22, PVC collecting from the Registration Area/Wards will return to the INEC Local Government offices.

He called on those unable to collect their PVCs at the LGA offices of the Commission to take advantage of the new development and do so at the Registration Areas/Wards within the stipulated dates.

He appealed to all stakeholders to provide a peaceful and enabling environment for the Commission staff to successfully carry out the exercise at the 319 Registration Areas/Wards in the state within the stipulated period.

The commission also said it was partnering with security agencies and other critical stakeholders like Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, to ensure that it conducts free, fair and credible elections.

The INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, gave this assurance on Friday in Lagos, at an interactive session with the line editors of media organizations.

According to him, “every PVC has a Voter Identification Number, VIN. INEC will retrieve the VINs and will quickly reprint the burnt/damaged cards to enable the affected voters to vote. Yes, they will be able to vote.

“Our responsibility is clearly cut out and that is to conduct the coming elections in all parts of the country. Security agencies provide security.

“Presently, we are working with security agencies to conduct the 2023 elections. We are determined and committed, and with the support of everybody, not only the security agencies, we will conduct credible elections in all parts of the country in 2023 and subsequently.

“For example, who believed that we we will have a credible election in Anambra in 2021? But we did because there was collaboration between INEC and the security agencies to make sure we had free and fair governorship poll there.”

The INEC chairman, however, assured that the commission was working to ensure that all registered voters participated in the elections.

“Those whose Permanent Voters’ Cards are burnt will vote if they apply for a new card. We will reprint those cards and the owners can vote. This also covers those who have lost their PVCs.”

Yakubu said the commission was really worried by electoral violence, targeted attacks on its facilities destruction of its offices, materials, pointing out that it was not a good omen for the 2023 elections.

While urging the National Assembly to ensure the proposed Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal came into being, Yakubu said it was important to ensure that electoral offenders were effectively punished.

He pleaded with journalists to assist in countering misinformation, disinformation and fake news.

Speaking on reservations by Nigerians on the possibility of using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in poor network areas as it depended on telecommunications network to work, Yakubu said the commission would be meeting with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Tuesday, on mobile network issues that might affect transmission of results.

He said that Nigerians had nothing to fear about the effectiveness of result transmission in the 2023 general elections using the BVAS.

The INEC chairman said they were liaising with NCC to make sure there would be seamless transmission of results in the 2023 elections.

“INEC has identified blind spots (where there is poor or no networks) and we are working to make sure there won’t be any problem.

“We are working with the NCC to make sure we transmit from blind spots. They are the network regulators and they will be very vital to that.

“We are making sure and working hard so that we transmit freely all around the country,” he said.

INEC stated this on Thursday in a statement signed by its Chairman, INEC Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye.

According to him, 904 ballot boxes, 29 voting cubicles, 30 megaphones, 57 election bags, and eight electric power generators were also destroyed by the unscrupulous elements.

The attacks occurred separately at the commission’s offices in Abeokuta South Local Government Area of Ogun State and the Ede South Local Government Area Of Osun State.

Okoye said both incidents occurred in the early hours of Thursday, noting that while the entire building of its Abeokuta office was set ablaze, a portion of its Ede office was burnt.

INEC’s Public Affairs Officer in Lagos State, Mrs Adenike Oriowo, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday  that so many old PVCs were still awaiting their owners to collect them at the 20 Local Government Area  offices of INEC in the state.

Oriowo, who expressed dissatisfaction with the poor turnout and aparty of many electorate to collection of PVCs, urged them not to wait until last minute rush before the  2023 general elections.

She said that the statistics as at Oct. 21 showed that INEC in Lagos state had received 6,570,291 PVCs from the commission’s National Headquarters prior the 2019 general elections.

“Old PVCs collected up till Oct. 21 was 5,644,239 while the total uncollected old PVCs as at the same time was 926,052.

“The new PVCs received from INEC headquarters earlier this year were 60,370 while only 22,538 were collected as at Oct. 21.

“Total uncollected new PVCs as at Oct. 21, was 37,832,” Oriowo said.

She said that the overall total PVCs received from the INEC National headquarters now was 6,630,661.

While the overall total PVCs collected by their owners as at Oct. 21 was 5,666,777, the overall uncollected was 963,884.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) National Commissioner, Festus Okoye, disclosed this on Wednesday on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.

According to him, “If you are a registered voter, in other words if you belong to the class of 84 million Nigerians that have already registered, you can track your data in our database.

“Secondly, if you were one of those that registered with the Commission during the Continuous Voter Registration exercise between 28th day of June 2021 and 14th day of January 2022, you can track where your Permanent Voter Card is and you will still be in a position to collect it.

“But if you register between the 15th day of January 2022 and the 31st day of July 2022, the implication is that you are not yet a registered voter in the true sense of the word because we have just finished the cleaning up of the voters’ register which is still ongoing.

“So, it is not possible for you to know where your permanent voters card is because we are yet to print your permanent voter cards and we are yet to make these permanent voter cards available for the registrants.”

He said there is pressure on INEC to conduct free and fair elections in 2023 and that it will be difficult for any politician to compromise the sanctity of electoral process in next year’s poll.

Okoye also said INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu can only be removed constitutionally if he commits any infraction against his office but dismissed rumours of the removal of the INEC boss.

Earlier on Wednesday, Yakubu at Third Quarterly Meeting with political parties for the year 2022 in Abuja said 40% of newly registered voters are students whilst 76.5 percent of the newly registered voters are young people.

According to Yakubu, 9,518,188 new voters have been added to the existing register of 84,004,084 voters and preliminary register of voters in Nigeria now stands at 93,522,272.

The Independent National Electoral Commission stated this on Tuesday while disclosing that new Permanent Voter Cards will be made available by November.

The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this at a National Endowment for Democracy event in Washington DC in the United States.

The chairman, who raised concerns about security challenges across the country, assured stakeholders that the commission will do its best.

According to him, “It is a perennial issue because, at the end of the day, it is not new but the dimension of the insecurity is new in the sense that in the past, it was localised or confined to a particular part of the country – the North-East but now, it is more widespread.

“We are keeping our eyes, particularly, on the North-West and the South-Eastern part of the country. Elections are conducted by human beings. We worry about the security of our officials, materials, and even the voters themselves. Without them, elections cannot be conducted.”

The chairman added that the commission “has spoken to the security agencies and they have assured us that the situation will improve before the elections. So, fingers crossed.”

Its National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, denied the claim in Abuja.

Okoye said that INEC’s attention was drawn to media reports that about seven million Nigerians who applied for the PVC online during the last Continuous Voter Registration were denied the opportunity.

“To set the records straight, INEC introduced the online pre-registration on June 28, 2021.

“By doing so, citizens were given the opportunity to start the registration online and then book appointments at their convenience to complete the physical biometric registration at designated centres.

“It was a novel idea leveraging on technology to ease the registration process,’’ he said.

Okoye explained that this was in addition to the walk-in option at physical registration centres, where registrants could begin and complete their registration without going through the online pre-registration procedure.

“For the online pre-registration, 10,487,972 began the process.

“By the deadline of the exercise, 3,444,378 registrants completed their pre-registration physically at the designated centres in line with laid-down procedure.

“Some 7,043,594 applicants did not complete the registration and INEC made the information public.

“This is what some people are now holding on to, to claim that they were denied the opportunity.

“In reality, they failed to either complete the online enrolment or failed to appear physically at the designated centres to complete the process,’’ he said.

Okoye added that out of the 7,043,594 who did not complete their registration, 4,161,775 attempted but either did not complete online pre-registration or abandoned it and went for the physical registration.

“The remaining 2,881,819 registrants completed the online pre-registration but did not show up to complete the physical biometric registration at designated centres before the expiration of the deadline.

“Therefore, it is clear that no Nigerian was denied the opportunity to complete the online pre-registration,’’ he stressed.

Okoye appealed to Nigerians to always adhere to timelines as against the endless agitation for eleventh hour extension of set deadlines.

INEC had reported that over seven million Nigerians, had begun their voter pre-registration online but could not complete the process at physical centres before its ended the registration on Sunday, 31, 2022.

But SERAP in a statement on Tuesday via its verified Twitter handle called on INEC to allow seven million Nigerians to complete their registration, noting that Nigerians need to complete the process to partake in the 2023 general elections.

“BREAKING: INEC must urgently allow the over seven million Nigerians who reportedly carried out their voter pre-registration online but could not complete the process at physical centres, to complete their registration so that they can vote in the 2023 elections,” SERAP tweeted.

INEC revealed this as the continuous voter registration exercise (CVR) ended on Sunday.

Recall that the commission, in June 2021, commenced the CVR exercise via its online portal, where Nigerians provided their biodata and required documents, after which applicants would visit INEC designated centres to complete the process physically, with a biometric capturing.

According to a report released by the commission, 10,487,972 Nigerians carried out their pre-registration online.

The commission stated only 3,444,378 Nigerians representing 32.8 percent, completed the process at a physical centre.

The 7,043,594 persons accounted for over 67 percent of those who began their registration process online, but could not obtain a voter card, which implied that they will not be able to vote in the 2023 general elections.

Meanwhile, INEC said a total of 12,298,944 Nigerians completed their voter registration; 8,854,566 of which were persons who did their registration entirely at a physical centre.

Recall that INEC had fixed June 30 as the deadline for the CVR ahead of the 2023 elections, but extended it till July after a federal high court in Abuja stopped the commission from ending the voter registration.