Underage Voters Alongside Their Parents Will Be Arrested- INEC Warns

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned that underage voters alongside their parents will be arrested if seen in polling stations come February elections.

 

Newsonline reports that INEC warned that the commission is committed to giving Nigerians free, fair and credible elections in 2023.

 

INEC’s National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, clarified that parents will be arrested for aiding their children by bringing them to the polling stations.

 

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Festus said this on Monday (today) while addressing issues concerning the coming election on Arise TV’s Morning Show.

 

Okoye said, “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.”

 

On issues of cleaning the voters’ register and addressing the multiple cases of underage voters registration, and double registration, INEC said most of the data circulating on social media were registrations that took place 2011 before the 2019 election.

 

He said the commission has been addressing all issues raised. “Some of the data you saw on social media about underage registration were some registrations that took place from 2011 to before the 2019 election,” he said.

 

Okoye added, “This commission had the courage to publish the entire register of voters and ask Nigerians to also check to ensure no malicious registrations have gone into our voters’ register.

 

“So, we have harvested all the claims and objectives 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.”

 

INEC called on Nigerians to go and get their voters cards to be able to elect their choice candidates in the coming elections. Festus said the commission cannot issue PVC to proxy. He called on youths who have come out en mass to register for the PVCs to make out time for their PVCs.