The Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday said that Nigerians who engaged in
double voters registration will be liable to one year imprisonment.
Mrs. Ndidi Okafor, Head, Voter
Education and Publicity, Gender and Civil Society Liaison, INEC, FCT, made this
known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Okafor, who quoted from section
117 of the Electoral Act, said “it is an offence for people to register
twice’’.
She said that anyone caught for
double registration would be prosecuted and if found guilty, would be convicted
to one year in prison or a fine of N100, 000 or both.
Okafor said that other
consequence of double registration was that the names of offenders would be
deleted from Voter Register, “meaning they would not have a Permanent Voter
Cards (PVC).
Speaking on the long queues at
registration centres in the FCT, the INEC official cautioned that
“it is not everyone that is
qualified to come out to register’’.
“The reason for the long queues
being experienced at the registration centres is because some people who have
no business going out to register are coming out.
“There are those who had
registered but only need to appear before the officer in charge of transfer or
corrections.
“We learnt that some people in
this category claimed that it takes longer time to do transfer or correct their
registration and they go for re-registration.
“This act will result in double
registration and anyone caught will be prosecuted,’’ she said
Okafor explained that there were
only three categories of Nigerians that should come for registration – those
who had just turned 18 years; those who had not registered before; those who
had registered, had Temporary Voter Cards, but their names were not on the
register.
“If you just relocate to a town
and you had registered where you were living before, please do not register
again.
“Just write a letter to the
Resident Electoral Commission in your new place and attach a photocopy of your
PVC and then come to the centre to transfer your registration.
“If you just got married and you
would want your husband’s name to reflect on the PVC, please do not register a
second time, go to the relevant officers and they will do the correction.
“They will give you an incidence
form and guide you through the processes of having that correction done,’’ she
said.
Okafor said those who lost their
PVC needed to get a police report and then go to the centre, get an incidence
form that will be used to process another one.
She said that anyone not too sure
of his or her registration status, should check the INEC’s website.
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