Nigeria’s Electoral Body, INEC Vows To Arrest Parents Of Underage Voters Caught In 2023 Elections

The Evangelist
January 3, 2023

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has vowed to arrest parents of underage voters in the 2023 general elections for electoral fraud.

To save their parents from arrest and prosecution, the commission on Monday warned underage voters to stay away from polling units during the general elections as they would be arrested alongside their parents.

Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, gave the warning while featuring on Channels TV programme.

Okoye said, “We have made it very clear that any visibly underage person should not approach any of our polling units on election days.

“If the person does appear, he or she would be arrested, alongside their parents for aiding and abetting such a venture.”

He berated politicians and political parties involved in the buying of Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) and harvesting of Voter Identification Numbers (VIN).

The INEC Commissioner said that “Those who are harvesting Voter Identification Numbers (VINs) of registered voters are doing that in futility.

“Why are they harvesting and buying off VINs when those VINs were published in our local government areas and in our registration areas when we displayed the voter registers for claims and objections? Those VINs are there.

“We have made it very clear that this Commission will deploy the BVAS for voters’ identification and authentication and the data of every registered voter in Nigeria per polling unit is domiciled in the BvAS and not in the PVCs.

“The only thing the Presiding Officer will do on Election Day is to look at the last six digits of your PVC and use it to bring out your VIN for the purpose of calling up your data from the BVAS.

“Those buying PVCs and harvesting VINs can only engage in voter oppression.

“They can only prevent the voter from going to the polling unit on Election Day but in terms of carrying the PVC of someone else to give another person for voting, I can assure you that it is next to impossible.”

Speaking on the recruitment of ad-hoc staff for the elections, Okoye said “The Commission will engage 1.4 million adhoc staff made up of National Youth Service Corps members and students in tertiary institutions in their final year.

“You will know that it is next to impossible for INEC to have over 1.4 million staff in its payroll.

“The strength staff of the Commission is around 16,000 and so when we devolve the collection to the various registration areas, we are going to engage the services of corp members to assist the Commission in terms of giving out these PVCs.”