410,000 IDPs to vote in Borno camps – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday said 409,813 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from eight local government areas of Borno State would be casting their votes in camps within and outside Maiduguri, the state capital.

Many communities in the North-east state have been affected by the activities of the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents who have waged a battle to claim territories for over 10 years.

The REC made this known at an interactive session organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) for election officials, civil society organisations, political parties, and journalists.

Mr Ibrahim also said INEC has registered 2,315,956 voters who are expected to participate in the polls.

He said INEC in the last two years, registered over 504,000 new voters whose Permanent Voters Card (PVC) have been produced and are available for collection.

But the official said over 300,000 PVCs are yet to be collected.

“We started the continuous voter registration in April 2017 and it was concluded on the 31st of December 2018,” the REC said.

“During the registration exercise, we registered 504,000 new voters which of course was (were) added to our former existing registered voters of about 1.8 million.

“The PVCs were printed and delivered to Borno State. We have since allowed people to come for collection of their PVCs. Initially, we had issues with people not coming to collect. But with adequate publicity, we now have up to 300,000 out of the 500, 000 that are yet to be collected now.

“But we hope in the next three days, people will come out to collect their PVCs,” he said.

The REC also said the commission has engaged and trained 22,000 electoral officials that would be deployed to all the designated polling units in the state.