Bikers Takes PVC Campaign to Lagos Communities

Bikers Takes PVC Campaign to Lagos Communities

Ayodeji Ake

Ahead of the general elections, a consortium of bikers recently stormed Lagos communities, educating electorates on the importance of the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) collection, while kicking against vote-buying.

Addressing pressmen recently in Lagos, the initiator, Chief Executive Officer, Bkleff Entertainment, Mr. Akorede Balogun noted that the group has been shouldering PVC collection and moral campaign against vote-buying to make the forthcoming election a credible one.

“The power of PVC ride is one of the best way to communicate with people getting their attention and as a biker people get attracted to the super bike so we took that on ourselves to use bike as an avenue telling people to get their PVC. Collecting it is not enough, using it not enough but they have to use it wisely.

“I see election as an exam which electorates are to sit for. How do we expect them to do well when they are not educated? We took it upon ourselves to educate them. So we decided to take election education to the streets of Lagos” he said.

Speaking on challenges, Balogun mentioned finance as the major challenge and harnessing resources to carry out the exercise.

“The major challenge is financing. And another one is that I find it difficult to run this thing alone. I have been meeting bikers, I have harnessing resources for them and they feel they should get their percentage, which is not coming forth” he said.

While appealing to electorates to not only collect their PVC but also vote wisely, Balogun urged politicians to also educate their supporters on free and fair election, rather than ballot-raiding and violence.

“My message is that I want everybody to educate ourselves on doing the right thing and if everyone can cultivate this habit, it will go far. When this initiative came I didn’t see for making money but I feel it should be for CSR , this is not a political organisation.

“I’m a solo biker and I don’t belong to any club but on this I had to meet the clubs for their support. Politicians are to see to the misconduct of their supporters by telling them to vote and not fight.
“And to the electorates, we have been used to vote buying but I will urge them to take a very good decision rather than to sell their votes,” Balogun said.

Appealing for support to promote PVC collection campaign, he said “the bikers are calling on private organisations to support this initiative, already Association of Professional Online Publishers and Journalists are partnering us, but we need more support.

“In most places we have been to, the response has been massive. Many are coming to us to get educated and they are registering. We want INEC to also support this initiative”.

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