They Almost Killed Me For Rejecting Underage Voting - Lai Olurode, Ex-INEC Boss Reveals

They Almost Killed Me For Refusing Underage Voting - Lai Olurode, Ex-INEC Boss Reveals

Prof. Lai Olurode, was the National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). In this report, the Prof. disclosed that he would have been murdered for refusing to allow underage voting during his time.

 He was the INEC National Commissioner for the South-West from 2010 to 2015. 

He revealed this recently because of the last Local Government election in Kano State, that was characterized by underage voting as reported earlier by Nollywood Times.
Prof. Olurode therefore called on the Federal and State Governments to see to the safety  of all registration officers, who are mostly members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). 

Olurode disclosed this during an interview with the Punch on Sunday while reacting to allegations of underage voting in the recently concluded local government election in Kano State. 

“If the people can be enlightened, underage voting will reduce. 

 “I had to run for my life at one of the election centres in a part of the country because these people said children must vote or there would be no election at all. It is that bad. 

 “The Kano State example is a bad signal and a warning that we really have a lot to do and the voter register is key. 

“In the course of my service to the nation during the Jega’s era, it was happening in many parts of the country but there are specific geographic locations where it is very common which means the problem can be tackled if responded to promptly by all the stakeholders. 

“When you see community leaders coming to meet you with a prepared list of children to be registered and you refuse, you come under threat. “In some parts of the country, when you refuse to register a child, they go away but in some other parts, the people are the ones who will demand that the child is registered.”

“Some security agents look the other way or tell you to allow the underage voters to vote.

In one election which I monitored, a commissioner of police said the presiding officer should ‘cooperate’ with the governor to allow them to thumbprint. 

“Of course, that election was cancelled. So, there is a need for voter education among security agents and others. So that when they are asked to do the wrong thing, they can refuse.”

Credit: punchng.com

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