Registration Malpractices will Attract N.1m to N1m Fines, Says INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that malpractices such as multiple registration, registering in different polling units, collection of more than one permanent voter’s card (PVC), name forgery and disruption of this year’s voters’ registration will attract fine ranging from N100,000 to N1 million from offenders.

Addressing newsmen on Thursday during the commencement of the voters’ registration exercise at the INEC secretariat in Bauchi, an INEC National Commissioner, Alhaji Shettima Baba Arfo, said the exercise would go on simultaneously in all parts of the country and would last three months.

He noted that voters’ registration is a precondition for voting, adding that Section 8 of the Electoral Act empowers INEC to conduct the exercise before every election in order to enable people who have clocked 18 years, those who lost their cards as well as migrants and workers who were transferred to another state to exercise their franchise.

According to him, the commission has concluded all preparations and trained its staff to conduct the registration at polling units across the 20 local government areas of the state and called on the electorate to turn up and cooperate with INEC officials to ensure that the exercise is hitch-free and successful.

Details later…