Underage voters, parents risk arrest

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has vowed to apprehend underage voters and their parents if they attempt to vote during the 2023 elections.

Its National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, stated this, yesterday, during an interview on a live television programme monitored in Lagos.

He decried the issue of underage voters in the country saying as part of efforts to address the challenge, INEC had summoned all its officers in areas where underage registrations were recorded.

“They will appear before a special panel of the commission and it is still ongoing. We have also made it very clear that any visibly underage person should not on any account approach any of our polling units on election day, because if the person does, the person will definitely be arrested. The parents will also be arrested for aiding and abetting such a venture,” he said.

Okoye said the electoral umpire was at present carrying out the clean-up of the voters’ register, assuring that Nigerians would be pleased with the end result.

“Some of the data you saw on social media about underage registration were some registrations that took place from 2011 to before the 2019 elections. This commission had the courage to publish the entire register of voters and asked Nigerians to also check to ensure no malicious registrations have gone into our voters’ register. So, we have harvested all the claims and objections and are cleaning up the voters’ register. We assure Nigerians, that the voters’ register we are going to go into the 2023 general election with will be one they will be proud of. As of today, the voters’ register is hovering around 93.5 million registered voters. On January 16, the commission will publish the official register that will be used for 2023 elections.”

Okoye also said collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) by proxy was not allowed.

“If people made efforts to register, they should also make efforts to come out and collect their PVCs. This commission will not, under any circumstance, give out any PVC by proxy,” he said.