There is disquiet over the non-release of the report of the committee set up by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to investigate allegations of under-age voting in Kano State.
Although the report has been submitted to INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, it has not been made public, fueling suspicions that the findings may be swept under the carpet.
INEC National Commissioner May Agbamuche-Mbu, who spoke on the report on AIT’s programme, Kakaki, yesterday, acknowledged that the committee had submitted the report to the chairman.
However, she could not categorically disclose when the report will be released, merely saying the commission will decide on that.
Under the constitution, the responsibility for conducting local council elections is within the jurisdiction of the state electoral commission. But, the state electoral agencies depend on the INEC’s register of voters for the exercise.
Initially, INEC had denied that fake voters participated in the disputed council poll, thereby heightening post-election tension in the Northwest state.
There was uproar in Kano State when the pictures of alleged under-aged voters were posted on the social media. Opposition parties cried foul, saying that the polls were rigged in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). They feared that the scenario may be repeated in next year’s polls, unless urgent steps were taken by the electoral agency to sanitise the voting register.
Irked by the alarm, INEC set up the committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding illegal voting by under-aged youths.
The committee, said a source, was also given the mandate to “clean-up” the register of voters by removing the names of under-aged and deceased voters.
According to the source, the committee, which attempted the pilot screening of the register of voters in eight local councils, discovered overwhelming evidence of under-age voting, which rendered the polls fraudulent and put a question mark on the results.
A Kano PDP chieftain, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the voters’ register in Kano is unreliable, stressing that it had been discredited by the fictitious names.
He lamented that the electoral commission had developed a cold feet and unwilling to release the report of the committee it set up, adding that INEC might have decided to gloss over the scandal.
The source added: “The credibility of INEC has been dented by the glaring disclosure that children and teenagers who were not eligible to vote participated in the election. The implication is that the voting population of Kano recorded in the register is false and cannot be substantiated. The last council election was a scam and an affront on electoral democracy.
“The onus is on INEC to release the report and implement the recommendations made by the committee as the first critical step in sanitising the register. We do not have confidence in the current register of voters and we will resist any plan to make use of it in future elections, unless the anomalies are corrected. The current register is not authentic. It is not valid at all.”