320 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) were found in Bayelsa State by hunters under the Nigeria Hunters and Forest Security Services group.
The PVCs were handed over to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the state’s capital, Yenagoa on Wednesday.
The Commandant of the association, Moses Okanu disclosed that the PVCs were found at an uncompleted building along the AIT/Elebele Road in Yenagoa. The items were recovered when the hunters were combing the bushes and forests on Tuesday around Asikoro and Elebele in the state.
Okanu stated that the hunters were attracted by a noise in the forest, and upon approaching the uncompleted building; the occupants of the facility fled the scene.
“We have been combing the bushes in the nooks and crannies because of the happening we have been hearing in the bushes. We started from Azikoro and went through Elebele,” he said
“In the course of our going round, we ran into an uncompleted building in the bush and we heard some noise with our usual way of operation to ascertain those who were there, the people sighting us started to jump out of the windows of the uncompleted building.
“So, we were able to penetrate into the building and what we saw was the abandoned voters’ cards. So knowing full well that these are Federal Government property and the only authority empowered or authorised by law to keep custody of these items is INEC, we have to recover them and decided to bring it to the Commission.”
INEC’s Administrative Secretary, Okop Umobong, while receiving the PVCs on behalf of the Resident Electoral Commission, Dr Alex Hart said that the commission will investigate the circumstances that led to the cards being found in the forest.
The Hunters Association for bringing the cards to the commission as well as keeping the neighbourhood safe.
Umobong revealed that INEC will carry out an investigation to determine whether the PVCs were abandoned in the process of printing or belonged to genuine voters.
