Pan Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, on Tuesday, said, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its immediate past chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega should be held responsible over the rampant cases of underage voters in the northern part of Nigeria.
The organisation’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said it was amazing that under-age children could be seen voting in some sections of the country when the law of the country stipulates that anyone below the age of 18 is not eligible to vote.
As it also holds Jega responsible for the anomaly, Afenifere said, in the build up to the 2015 general election, while INEC under Jega’s leadership distributed the PVCs to individuals in the Southern part of the country, they allegedly handed them over to Emirs in the North, who in turn distributed them to everyone in their locality, including children.
“It is a shame on INEC that we agreed as a nation that the voting age is 18 yet we saw all those babies holding PVCs in the North. They did it during the 2015 election and I am putting the blame on INEC because no state registers voters in Nigeria, it is the responsibility of INEC. How did those voters cards get into the hands of those children?
“We learnt that in 2015 what INEC did under Jega after the voters registration was to give voters cards to individuals in the South but handed them over to Emirs in the North, who are just giving it to anybody that is available. So, one is not surprised that some babies who were just born were allocated PVCs.
“We cannot have different nations in a country. If we agreed that the required age for voting under the law is 18, then that law should apply to every parts of the country and those violating it should be sanctioned. We must put a stop to this before the next election”, he said.