Catholic Priest Tells Students: “You Will Have ‘Carry-over ‘Unless You Show PVC”; Priests Bar Members From Mass Over PVC

By Adesina Soyooye

The drive for PVC has taken another  serious  dimension.

It is not the youths who, for the first time,  are trooping-out in their millions to register and get their PVCs. It is not the thousands of traders who are closing down markets to enable traders get their PVCs. It is not even the Law Firm in Awka, Anambra State, where the Senior Partner ordered staff members to get their PVCs or no Salary. No, the drive has gone spiritual.

Non ownership of PVC can stop a Christian from making Heaven, literally. And it can stop students in faith-based tertiary institutions from graduating.

Two trending videos which surfaced on Sunday, June 12, confirm this.

During Mass on Sunday, a Priest of the Roman Catholic  Church, obviously the Rector of a School, stopped the congregation from entering into the Church. Not just his students, but everybody and anybody without PVC or an evidence that you had registered.

He told the students: “All those without their PVCs will have carry-over. And I am serious.” Meaning: They will deliberately be failed in their examinations or will not be allowed to take the examination.

He told the congregation: “Without your PVCs, you will not be allowed to worship in this Church. You will not be allowed to even enter the Church. The Federal Government says it will end on June 30, so go and get yours.

“You must carry your PVCs to Church.” To show how serious he is, he made way for those with their PVCs to enter the Church. “Those with your PVCs, show it and enter. Those without it, go and register and come with it next time.”

In another Roman Catholic Church, the Priest in-charge did much the same. It was a 6.00am Mass, but as at 6 30am, he still wouldn’t let the Service start. It was “operation show your PVC first.”

Blocking the entrance to the Church from where he stood and addressed the congregation, he told them: “Without your PVCs, you cannot enter the Church. And you cannot take Communion from now on.

What is the point in the Church filled every Sunday, and yet, Christians can’t do anything with it. On election days, we are nowhere.”

The fear, however, is that with the millions of people desirous and struggling to get their PVCs  the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, may not be able to cope with the registration. And, on election day, if they will cope with the number of voters.