Lagos – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Friday said it did not direct any of its workers to collect money from eligible voters before or after registering them.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Lagos State, Dr Adekunle Ogunmola, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the commission would not hesitate to decisively deal with any worker engaging in the act.
Ogunmola spoke with NAN in Lagos against the backdrop of complaints from people in some wards in FESTAC Town and Ikotun that they were asked to pay before being registered.
INEC began Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) on Dec. 3 in nine local government areas of Lagos State not covered from Nov. 12 to Nov. 19 when it was held in 11 council areas.
The exercise will end on Dec. 8.
“I invited somebody this morning from Badagry because of this allegation, but he denied it.
“We are saying that such a thing should not arise.
“Some miscreants too will go and write names of non-existing people and say that anybody that comes should pay money to replace those in the list.
“We have not directed anybody to do such a thing; if we have concrete evidence, we are ready to deal with perpetrators.
“Corp members are under the NYSC scheme and can be easily dealt with.
“That is why we do not engage anybody that we cannot deal with once it is made known to us,” he said.
Ogunmola said that it was the responsibility of the electoral officer to make sure that equipment for registration worked perfectly.
He said that INEC had provided everything required for a smooth exercise.
He said that each ward was supposed to have a power generator so that when laptop battery would run down, it could be connected directly to the generator.
Ogunmola also said that fuelling of such a generator was the duty of the commission.
On the just concluded Permanent Voter Cards’ distribution, Ogunmola said that the exercise recorded more than 50 per cent success.
“By the time we conclude the CVR, we will come out again to the wards and get as many cards as possible to the people.
“Our intention is to ensure that, before the end of January, all cards are out,” he said. (NAN)
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