2019: Politicians devising new rigging formular, INEC cries out

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has exposed a new method of vote buying devised by some partisan actors who he said “are buying up permanent voters cards (PVCs) from the voters.”

INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu who disclosed this on Monday in his quarterly consultative meeting with leaders of political parties aimed at presenting the voters register to the parties’ leaders further disclosed that some of the partisan actors were also  financially inducing voters to collect their Voter Identification Numbers on the PVCs. 

According to the INEC chairman, telephone numbers and bank details of the voters are also being  taken, stating that the intention behind the move may be to deprive such voters from voting since no one can vote without PVC.

He also maintained that the essence of obtaining their phone numbers and bank details is to financially induce them (voters) through electronic transfer of funds to their accounts since it would be difficult to buy votes at the polling units. 

The INEC boss also states that by collecting their VINs, the partisan actors are acting on the wrong notion that the commission’s system can be hacked into and the Card Readers somehow preloaded ahead of the election and compromised. 

He assured Nigerians that such efforts would be futile while maintaining that the commission would work with security agencies to deal with the violators of the electoral laws including those who may be trying to compromise the commission’s staff for making PVCs available for collection by legitimate voters.

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