The Independent National Electoral Commission has
raised the alarm that some politicians have been buying up Permanent
Voter Cards or inducing voters financially to collect the Voter
Identification Numbers .
The chairman of INEC , Prof . Mahmood
Yakubu, raised the alarm on Monday during its quarterly consultative
meeting with political parties in Abuja, where he presented the 2019
voter register and electoral guidelines to the parties .
He said ,
“A new method of vote -buying is being devised . We have received
credible information that some partisan actors are now going round
buying up PVCs from voters or financially inducing them to collect the
VINs on their PVCs.
“ In some instances, telephone numbers and
details of bank accounts of voters have been collected . By collecting
the PVCs, their intention may be to deprive the voters of voting since
no one can vote without the PVC. By collecting their phone numbers and
bank details , the intention is to induce voters by electronic transfer
of funds to their accounts since it will be difficult to buy votes at
polling units .
“ By collecting the VINs , they may be acting on
the mistaken notion that our system can be hacked into and the card
readers somehow preloaded ahead of election and compromised .
We
want to assure Nigerians that we are aware of the new tricks . It is a
futile effort ; we will work with security agencies to deal with the
violators of our electoral laws , including those who may be trying to
compromise our staff responsible for making the PVCs available for
collection by the legitimate voters . ”
The commission also vowed to keep a close watch on political parties by monitoring their campaign finances .
Yakubu
said , “ As campaigns are going on nationwide , the commission will
keep very close watch on campaign finance . In particular , we shall
closely monitor spending by parties and candidates as well as individual
and group donations to campaign organisations. We will discharge this
regulatory responsibility diligently .
“ The commission has
designed campaign finance reporting forms to ensure compliance with the
reporting requirements by parties . The EC 16 C for annual finance
reporting by parties , the EC 16 D for income (including contributions
and donations ) and EC 16 E on party expenditure are already available
on the commission’ s website .”
He told political parties there
was no change in the number of polling units and voting points used for
2015 General Elections and the 2016 area council elections in the
Federal Capital Territory, adding that any information to the contrary
was utterly baseless and should be disregarded.
The INEC chairman
advised leaders of political parties to start compiling lists of party
agents for submission not later than 14 days to the election, in line
with the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2019 General
Elections .
He noted that the deadline for the presidential and
National Assembly elections remained February 1, 2019, while
governorship , state assembly and FCT Area Council elections is February
16 , 2019.
The INEC chairman stressed that the commission would
not allow the collection of PVCs by proxy and advised registered voters
to collect their cards personally , without which no person would vote .
He
dismissed insinuations that the Smart Card Readers would not be used
for the 2019 General Elections for accreditation of voters .
Yakubu
said , “ On this note , let me re - emphasise the commission’ s policy
that the Smart Card Readers will be used for the 2019 General Elections
for accreditation of voters. For clarity , I wish to stress that the
function of the Smart Card Reader during accreditation is to confirm ,
verify and authenticate the voter .
“ First , it shall be used to
confirm that the PVC is genuine and issued by INEC . Cloned cards or
cards that do not match the codes for a particular polling unit in which
the voter is registered will be rejected by card readers.
Secondly
, card readers shall verify that the voter who presents the PVC is the
actual owner of the card by ensuring that the personal details on the
card reader are consistent with the manual register for the polling unit
.
“ Thirdly, the card reader shall be used to authenticate the
fingerprint of the voter as an additional confirmatory procedure. If the
fingerprint is not authenticated by the card reader but the PVC is
confirmed as genuine and the voter ’ s personal details are consistent
with the manual register, he / she shall be allowed to vote. ”
Lagos , Kano maintain lead in number of voters , as voters hit 84 , 004, 084
Meanwhile,
the voters register presented by the Independent National Electoral
Commission to political parties in Abuja on Monday has shown that Lagos
and Kano states have maintained the lead in the number of registered
voters .
In the breakdown , INEC says a total of 84 , 004, 084 Nigerians will vote in the elections .
Out of the over 84 million voters, Lagos State accounts for 6 .6 million while Kano has 5 .5 million voters.
In 2015 , Lagos and Kano states recorded 5 .8 million and 5. 0 million respectively.
The analysis of the voter register shows South - South has 12 , 841, 279 voters.
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