To encourage greater participation in the forthcoming general elections, the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, has taken sensitisation campaign on collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards, PVC, to residents of the territory.
Flagging off the sensitisation drive, the FCT permanent Secretary, Mr. Olusade Adesola, advised residents of the territory to ensure that they collected their PVC and come out en-masse to vote for the candidates of their choice during the elections.
Adesola, who was represented by Secretary of the FCT Area Councils Service Secretariat, Alhaji Ibrahim Dantsoho, also urged the residents to collect their PVCs for them to have a voice during and after the elections.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Youth Matters, Isaac David, explained that the reason for the sensitisation was to ensure that no residents of the territory, especially those at the grassroots are not left out in the PVC collection before the deadline.
He said: “Across the 36 States of Nigeria, we are the first people to initiate a sensitisation programme tagged collection of PVC close to your ward, because this year’s election, the youths in the FCT want to take the lead in the voting process.
“We also want to hold our leaders accountable because we cannot afford to leave the elections for politicians again. We need to checkmate them and guide them also.
“The PVC is also a very important card to us, so we need to sensitise our people at the grassroots level and rural communities on the importance of the PVC”.
The minister’s aide who noted that some persons in the grassroot are sceptical on collecting their PVCs because they believe their votes will not count, stressed the need to make them understand the business aspect of collecting the PVC.
“Having your PVC is the only way you can hold your leaders accountable, but without the PVC, you do not have the powers to call any leader to account.
All thanks to the minister of FCT who gave the approval for this sensitisation to be carried across the wards in the six area councils of the FCT.
“We are going to spend two days in each area council to ensure that the message gets to the grassroots of the council. We believe that if the sensitisation gets to the grassroots, the votes from the FCT will be more than in previous elections”, he added.
