The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says
visibly underage persons who attempt to vote during the 2023 elections will be
arrested.
Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner for information and
voter education, said this on Monday during an interview on ‘The Morning Show’,
a programme by Arise Television.
Okoye said in an effort to address issues around underage
registration, INEC has 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,” he said.
“The parents will
also be arrested for aiding and abetting such a venture.”
Speaking further, Okoye said the clean-up of the voters’
register is ongoing, adding 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,” he said.
“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.”
On the collection of permanent voter cards (PVCs), the INEC
commissioner maintained that PVC collection by proxy is 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.
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