Lagos declares four work-free days for workers to obtain PVCs

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Monday, approved a four work free days for workers in the state to get their PVCs as the July 31 deadline approaches.

The state government, in a statement signed by the Head of Service, Mr Hekeem Muri-Okunola, said the work free days begin from Tuesday 26th July till Friday 29th July before the deadline given by the electoral body for prospective voters to get registered ends.

The statement directed the Accounting Officers to ensure compliance, adding that workers are expected to bring along their PVC while returning for work.

“It is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in the Electoral process of her country, therefore, all Public Servants are encouraged to partake in the upcoming Year 2023 General Elections.

“Consequently, it is notified for general information that all Public Servants who are yet to register for or collect their Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) from designated INEC centres are advised do so before the deadline date of 30th July 2022.

“To this end, Mr Governor has graciously approved a Work Free Day for Public Servants to enable them process/collect their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) from their respective Local Governments/ Local Council Development Areas. Officers are expected to return back to work with their Voter’s Card after this exercise.

“Accordingly, Accounting Officers are hereby enjoined to excuse their officers in the respective Grade Levels on the designated dates.”

The designated dates, according to the Head of Service are, Tuesday 26th– Grade Levels concerned are 01, 03, 07 & 15.

For Wednesday 27th July, the Grade Levels affected are 02, 04, 08 & 13. Thursday 28th July, Grade Levels 05, 09, 12 & 17 while Friday 29th July is dedicated for Grade Levels 06, 10, 14 & 16.

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in Lagos State, Mr Olusegun Agbaje had disclosed that statistics showed that the state currently had about seven million registered voters.

According to him, if the number of new registrants so far in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, is added to those in the register of voters before in the state, the number will be about seven million.

“In Lagos state as at Monday (July 18), those who registered online are 640, 560 but many of them have not completed registration. Those who have completed the registration exercise are 451,156.

“The total number of registered voters in Lagos state before the commencement of the ongoing CVR is 6,570,291, and if we add the new registrants, we have about seven million registered voters,” Agbaje said.

He, however, said the ongoing CVR had not ended and the commission was still capturing more people before deadline on July 31.