A video has surfaced showing a staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at Emene Primary school in Enugu State collecting N1,000 each from Nigerians before giving them their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).
She said in the video that the N1,000 was to cover her transport fare and stress she went through to get the cards to a primary school in a neighbourhood in the LGA
It was gathered that the incident happened in Enugu-East Local Government Area (LGA).
Social media users have raised concerns, saying the brazen extortion is a threat to free and fair election in Nigeria.
Nigerians are collecting their PVCs to enable them to exercise their franchise.
On Saturday, INEC extended the collection of the PVCs by one week.
This was disclosed by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye.
This is the second time the commission is extending the collection of PVCs.
The commission said the decision followed reports from the various states and discussions with resident electoral commissioners (RECs).
Since the African country returned to democratic rule in 1999, next month’s election will be the sixth time Nigeria will conduct a general election.
Reacting, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is currently investigating alleged extortion in connection with the distribution of permanent voter cards (PVCs) in Enugu east LGA of Enugu state.
Speaking with NAN on Monday, Rex Achumie, INEC’s head of department of voter education and publicity in Enugu, said the woman in the video is not a staff or a hoc staff of INEC.
He added that none of the people in the video are INEC employees.
“INEC wants to unravel how the cards got into the hands of the unscrupulous woman in the first place,” he said.
“We are looking at getting the electoral officer in charge of the area to liaise with his staff to know who actually gave the woman the cards.”
Achumie assured residents that INEC would get a clearer picture of the whole episode by Tuesday, as well as “where and whom the woman in question is working for”.
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