Under-Aged Voters Will Be Arrested, Along With Their Parents – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has once again cautioned under-aged voters to avoid polling units during the 2023 election.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, warned on Monday, January 2 during an interview on Channels Television that underage voters would be arrested alongside their parents, who would be charged with aiding and abetting such a venture.

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

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

Okoye also rebuked those involved in buying Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) and gathering of Voter Identification Numbers (VIN).

He said: “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”.