Former Inec commissioner says his life was threatened for refusing to allow kids to vote

FORMER Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) national commissioner Professor Lai Olurode has revealed that he was nearly killed while doing his job because he refused to allow underage voters to participate in polling.

Professor Olurode was the Inec national commissioner for the southwest between 2010 and 2015, during which he supervised two general elections. Recalling his experience during the time, Professor Olurode called on the federal government to ensure that registration officers, who are mostly members of the National Youth Service Corps, were protected at all times from aggressive and violent polling agents and political thugs.

“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. The All progressives Congress (APC) government has a responsibility to deliver an election that will be better than the 2015 election," Professor Olurode said.

He added that underage voting could be tackled by engaging community leaders and carrying out massive voter education. Speaking about the recent incidence of kids voting in Kano State, professor Olurode said underage voting was more common in certain parts of the country than some others, which would make it easier for Inec to tackle.

Professor Olurode stressed: “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. 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."

He called on the federal government to harmonise the several databases in the country as this would reduce underage voting. Furthermore, he said if the database of persons with driving licences, passports, national identity cards and Bank Verification Numbers could be harmonised, it would be easier to get authentic information of Nigerians and curb underage voting.

“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,” Professor Olurode added.