Engage stakeholders to neutralise PVC buyers, Saraki tells INEC

President of the Nigerian 8th Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki 

SENATE President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has advised  the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu to organise a stakeholders’ meeting to address the issue of buying of Permanent Voters Card, PVC, by desperate politicians.
In a statement by his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki said: “We have continued to maintain that manipulation of election results does not start and end on election day.  It starts long before the day and goes on even after the declaration of results.

 That is why we have to continually be vigilant and once we identify any threat to free, fair and transparent conduct of a credible election like the INEC chairman has done, all stakeholders must come together to block the loopholes.

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 “All stakeholders must come up fast with a solution to render useless the antics of those who intend to procure voter’s cards.

 We all need to put our heads together and I am sure that such a stakeholders’ meeting will not only nip in the bud the looming danger, it will also engender general confidence in the system and create a system in which all stakeholders become problem solvers.”

 The Senate President stressed that in the next six weeks, preceding the first set of elections and immediately after the elections, it was important for INEC to devise an arrangement to constantly consult with stakeholders to identify issues affecting the process and how to find joint solutions to them.