ICPC board member reacts to photos of minors on INEC voters’ register

A board member of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Bukola Balogun has reacted to the alleged registration of children in the northern part of the country as eligible voters by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Earlier in the week, photos of minors registered as voters on the INEC voters’ register surfaced on social media.

The pictures gained traction on all social media platforms as Nigerians condemned the development and called on the electoral body to explain how children who are obviously below voting age were registered as voters ahead of the 2023 election.

Speaking to Pulse reporter after a breakout session at the 28th edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja on Monday, November 14, 2022, Balogun said the agency won’t disclose the action it would take in addressing the issue of underage voting in the country.

“Let’s leave till that time, those are operational issues and it’s not good to talk about what would happen in the future, you know when you now bring out what you want to do…. you know our society. So, please let’s leave it like that. But let us all perform our civic responsibility and pray to God to do well for Nigeria”, she said.

On vote buying, she said the anti-corruption agency is already making efforts to curb it, adding that some people have already been jailed for inducing voters with money.

“For every election, we have been part of it. I won’t go into the details but I can tell you, we are on top of it. But you know some people have been arrested and have been tried for vote buying, so, those are operational issues and I want to tell you that we are working on it”, she said.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Information and Voter Education of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Festus Okoye, has called on Nigerians to help in cleaning the voters’ register.

Okoye while speaking during an interview he had on Channels TV Politics Today, on Monday confirmed that he has seen the photos of the kids trending on social media as eligible voters.