Doubts and anxiety now envelop an appreciable number of Nigerians that the
2019 general elections may have already been rigged.
This follows recent revelations in Kano and Katsina States, where underage
voters were allegedly seen brandishing their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and
voting in the just concluded local government elections in Kano State and the by-
election in Katsina State last week.
The process later turned in the results for the ruling All Progressives Congress
(APC) in both states, raising the questions as to how children as young as 8 and
12 years, could have access to the PVCs reserved only for people from 18 years
and above, according to the electoral laws.
This concern has already prompted the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) to issue a public statement. Although it acknowledged the
pictures of the underage voters, the commission tried to exonerate itself from
the anomaly, saying, “As far as we can ascertain, they (the pictures) relate to a
local government election conducted at the weekend (in Kano).
“While the Commission remains resolute in our commitment to sanitise the
nation’s electoral process and deliver free, fair and credible elections, we cannot
be held directly or vicariously liable for a process outside our legal purview.”
INEC’s director of publicity and voter education, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, admitted
recently that officials out of fear for their lives and threats by community
members register underage voters, but assured that the commission had a
mechanism through which it removed the ineligibles from the voter register even
after they found their way into the register.
So far, the total number of registered voters across the country is 73,944,312,
according to INEC. The North-West geopolitical zone leads with a total of
18,505,984 voters.
The South-West zone, which comprises Ekiti, Lagos, Ondo, Ogun, Osun and Oyo
states, trails with a total number of 14,626,800 registered voters, while the
South-East, with the lowest number of states, has 8,293,093 registered voters.
The main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has castigated
the INEC and blamed it for complicity and instigating voting by minors.
The PDP says Nigerians have lost confidence in the INEC for attempting to cover
its complicity in the widespread impunity recorded in last Saturday’s Kano local
council elections, particularly the documented massive underage voting that
characterised the exercise.
The party says it was INEC that registered the minors as voters in the first place
and as such should not in any way attempt to exonerate itself of involvement in
the electoral fraud, simply because it did not directly conduct the elections.
PDP national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement on
Wednesday, said the press release by INEC, wherein it tried to exonerate itself
from culpability in the participation of minors in Kano election, clearly showed
that INEC under Mahmood Yakubu was completely unreliable and cannot be
trusted.
“We ask: Who is fooling who? Is it not INEC that registered the minors and
issued them with Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVC) to participate in elections as
clearly documented in the Kano council election? Can INEC truly acquit itself as
the original culprit who set the stage for the eventual participation of the minors
and overall rigging of the elections?
“By resorting to lame excuses and trying to exonerate itself at a time it should be
taking decisive steps to protect the sanctity of its sensitive materials such as the
PVC, this INEC has shown that it cannot be relied upon as a responsible and
trustworthy electoral umpire.
“Indeed, if this INEC was serious about the sanctity of sensitive electoral
materials, by now, it should have ordered the immediate review of its voter
register in Kano and Katsina states, fishing out and prosecuting those who
registered the minors and clean up the electoral system in the affected states.
“Viewed alongside series of numerous other irregularities being allowed by INEC
to favor the ruling APC, including alleged conspiracy with APC-controlled security
operatives to intimidate opposition members and manipulate elections as
witnessed in the last Saturday’s Mashi/Dutsi Federal Constituency
“Supplementary election in Katsina state, any reasonable person will decode that
INEC, as presently constituted, has serious questions to answer, especially as we
approach the 2019 general elections.”
In Kano election debacle last weekend, reports were rife about polling officials
waiting in vain for sensitive materials to be supplied by officials of the State
Electoral Commission which, as is now obvious, was a deliberate arrangement to
disenfranchise genuine voters and rig the poll. Nigerians are now more afraid
that this sly move could be replicated all over the federation to frustrate eligible
voters and deny them their rights across the federation.
Nigerians are also struck by the fear that the porous borders especially around
the northern axis have allegedly become transit routes through which devious
politicians now make way for aliens from countries such as Chad, Niger, Mali,
Guinea and Senegal to infiltrate the country to register and vote in elections.
This situation has been on for decades but it is worsening in recent times and the
failure and sometimes the alleged complicity of the immigration officials who
allowed these aliens into the country compound not just the electoral fraud but
even pose a serious security threat to the country.
Responding to this development, the Executive Director of Civil Society
Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani, told
BusinessDay on Friday that the issue of underage voting in Kano last week was
unfortunate and shameful saying “I think what happened is a shame and if it is
going to be replicated in 2019, then we are in trouble.”
Although he exonerated the INEC, he blamed the state government saying “I am
sure that what happened was a result of intimidation and violence perpetrated by
the governor of Kano State against his opponents.
INEC has been calling on Nigerians to register and Nigerians have to respond to
that call.
“There was no proper procedure that was followed in the conduct of that
election in Kano and not only in Kano but in Lagos and Delta in previous local
elections. The issue is that they did not even use any PVCs, young children were
just seen thump printing the ballot papers. So, all I can say is that there was no
election in Kano. We rather blame the state government. I think it’s the
desperation and lack of transparency that characterized the process.”
The Head Research Policy and Advocacy or Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth
and Advancement, Samson Itodo, told BusinessDay on Friday, “There is
complicity on the part of the registration officials no doubts but the critical
problem is actually the community conspiracy. The communities actually
conspired and enforced it on the officials to register under age persons. And this
is driven by a particular philosophy that communities do have and it has to do
with the nature of Nigeria’s political economy that confers access to resources
based on state power.
“State power determines access to resources, therefore the number of
registered voters you are able to have in your community will determine the
access to resources that the community will benefit. Politics is a game of
numbers and because of that people devise different strategies and means to
ensure that they get the figures behind them and that is something that we really
need to resolve.”
He added that there are instances where registration officials have been
intimidated and threatened by the communities and if they officials do not
register these under age voters, they will probably be lynched.
He however, noted that the problem of underage voters and even registration by
foreigners could be addressed by the officials. “When the registration officials
register people under duress they have the duty and responsibility to ensure that
when they go back to consolidate on the data they take out all those people who
by mere observation you can tell they have not attained the age of 18. This
brings to the fore the need for a consolidated national identity database, which
we currently don’t have because of infrastructural deficit and that is just
incompetence.
“This under age voting and the alleged voting by foreigners can undermine the
integrity of the process and we have an opportunity in the ongoing continuous
voter registration to ensure that we expose all those communities who are
encouraging this type of behaviour and to also deal with INEC officials who are
compromised to register under aged children and aliens and prosecute them
because it is an electoral offence,” he said.
The provisions of the Electoral Act provide the opportunity to interrogate the
voter register before it is finalised on the eve of General Elections. According to
the electoral law the register, including pictures of registrants, is displayed at
registration centres and polling units nationwide for claims and objections. The
purpose is for the register to be assessed by citizens so that ineligibles such as
underage, aliens etc are eliminated.
It has been discovered that most Nigerians do not pay attention, neither do they
check the register and raise the necessary objections to help INEC clean up the
register. This laxity therefore is another albatross because once the register is
finalised, it requires a legal process to expunge the names of voters from the
register. It becomes even more difficult where there is community complicity,
which has become very rampant.

Innocent Odoh, Abuja

https://www.businessdayonline.com/underage-alien-voters-fuel-fear-2019-elections-already-rigged/

let's see how things unfold. Meanwhile, get your PVC