CSOs, SAN Ask FG, States To Declare Work-Free Day For Voters To Collect PVCs

Permanent Voters Cards

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The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room has called on the Federal and State Governments to declare at least one work-free day to enable Nigerians collect their Permanent Voters Cards.

Situation Room, which is a forum for civil society organizations committed to the promotion of democracy and good governance, expressed concerns at the inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to produce and distribute PVC.

While calling on INEC to take steps to address several logistical and other concerns about the elections, Situation Room also called on the police and other security agencies to publicly state their election plans and to make a commitment to professionalism and non-partisanship during the elections.

In a similar vein, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Sebastine Hon, said that one of the easiest ways to resolve the problems was for states to declare a work-free day‎.

In a statement he issued in Abuja on Thursday, Hon said: "One sure way out is for the various State Governments to individually designate some days as public holidays for this all-important exercise to be carried out by Nigerians wishing to exercise their civic responsibilities.

"The power of State Governments to designate some days as public holidays is derivable from section 2(2) of the Public Holidays Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, which is to the following effect:

(2) Subject to section 1 of this Act, the Governor of a State may by public notice appoint a special day to be kept as a public holiday in the State concerned or in any part thereof, and any day so appointed shall be kept as a public holiday.

"Even though only one day is contemplated by the above subsection, by section 14(b) of the Interpretation Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, singular is, where appropriate, to be interpreted as plural and vice versa. Besides, we have always observed public holidays declared by State Governors.

"If any State Governor takes this lead, Nigerians will soon know who among the State Governors wants to truncate our hard-earned democracy, by refusing blatantly to make a similar declaration.‎"

The Executive Director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, Mr Clement Nwankwo who read the press statement on behalf of the situation room said:"We insis‎t that only PVC and card reader machines should be used for elections.