INEC to probe underage voting in Kano LG polls as public outcry mounts

Following the public outcry that has continued to trail the alleged under age voting in the last Saturday Kano State local government election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has promised to launch a probe into the matter.

Pictures and videos of underage voters, said to have emanated from elections in the 44 local government areas of Kano state, and Katsina recently flooded social media platforms.

The occurrence has continued to receive condemnation, with many Nigerians calling on INEC to cancel the election.

INEC had earlier absolved itself of the development claiming that state electoral bodies and not it, was responsible for LG elections. The claim by INEC was despite the fact that the materials used for the election came from it.

But speaking on Friday in Lagos at a workshop on the implementation of the Election Project Plan, the commission’s chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, said that the commission could not ascertain whether or not the voter register it gave the Kano SIEC was used or discarded.

“By way of clarification, I wish to state that the commission is aware of the discussion around the voter register and the concern expressed in certain quarters on the possible prevalence of ineligible registrants on the voter register. The commission is equally concerned for the simple reason that the credibility of an election draws from the credibility of the voter register.

“It is true that the state Independent Electoral Commission had requested INEC for a copy of the voter register. I can confirm also that a soft copy of the register was made available to the State. The voter register in Kano State is the one used for the 2015 General Election. In July 2016, INEC used the same register to conduct a State Assembly bye-election in Minjibir Constituency which has 78,210 registered voters spread across 126 polling units clustered in 11 Registration Areas (Wards). In that election conducted by INEC, no single incidence of underaged voter was recorded. What therefore happened in the last Local Government election conducted by the State Electoral Commission? Was the voter register actually used or not?

“We wish to assure Nigerians that the matter will be fully investigated. A National Commissioner from INEC will lead a team to Kano next week involving technical staff of the Commission drawn from the Voter Registry (VR), Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and the Electoral Operations (EOps) Departments for an immediate and comprehensive investigation. We will share the findings of the investigation with Nigerians. I wish to assure Nigerians that going forward, we will interrogate the voter register nationwide in order to purge it of any possible ineligible registrants.

READ ALSO: Buhari supporters vow to sue Oyegun as EFCC rejects petition against party chairman 

“Turning to the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, I am glad to report that from July to December 2017, some 3,978,682 citizens were registered afresh nationwide; 135,127 unclaimed Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were collected; and 166,073 requests for transfers and 334,086 requests for replacements of PVCs were recorded. For the new fresh registrants, the gender distribution shows 58% male and 42% female. In terms of the distribution by States, Rivers State recorded the highest number of new registrants, followed by Delta and Lagos while Kwara, Gombe and Ondo recorded the lowest. The Commission will be posting detailed information and analysis of the ongoing CVR on our website on a continuous basis for public information from next week,” Yakubu said.

According to Section 12 (1) of the Electoral Act, the eligibility for registration as a voter in Nigeria include citizenship, residence and the attainment of the mandatory age of 18 years.

 

RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears

Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now