A former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Lai Olurode, says he almost lost his life for refusing to allow underage voters to vote some years ago.
He, therefore, 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.
Olurode was the INEC National Commissioner for the South-West from 2010 to 2015.
Olurode said this during an interview with one of our correspondents on Sunday while reacting to allegations of underage voting in the recently concluded local government election in Kano State.
The former INEC commissioner said, “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.”
Olurode said underage voting could be tackled by engaging community leaders and carrying out massive voter education.
The former INEC official said underage voting was more common in certain parts of the country than some others which would make it easier for INEC to tackle.
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