Underage Voters, Parents Risk Arrest

• Security agencies to pick up ineligible voters during election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has vowed to apprehend underage voters and their parents if they attempt to vote during the 2023 elections.

Its National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, stated this, yesterday, during an interview on a live television programme monitored in Lagos.

“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,” he said.

Okoye said the electoral umpire was at present carrying out the clean-up of the voters’ register, assuring that Nigerians would be pleased with the end result.

Okoye also said collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) by proxy was 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.

SUN NEWS