Nigeria: Politics I was almost killed for trying to stop Underage voting – Ex-INEC boss, Olurode
Professor Lai Olurode, a former national commissioner of the
Independent national electoral commission, INEC has opened up on how he
almost lost his life for trying to stop underage voting.
Olurode was INEC national commissioner for the south-west from 2010 to 2015. Reacting to allegations of underage voting in the just concluded Kano state LGA polls, He told Punch;
If the people can be enlightened, underage voting will reduce. There are certain areas of this country where even if they know the person is a kid, they will insist that the child must vote.
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 APC government has a responsibility to deliver an election that will be better than the 2015 election.
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. The register must be clean, it must not have ghost names or underage voters.
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.
Olurode was INEC national commissioner for the south-west from 2010 to 2015. Reacting to allegations of underage voting in the just concluded Kano state LGA polls, He told Punch;
If the people can be enlightened, underage voting will reduce. There are certain areas of this country where even if they know the person is a kid, they will insist that the child must vote.
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 APC government has a responsibility to deliver an election that will be better than the 2015 election.
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. The register must be clean, it must not have ghost names or underage voters.
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.