THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said its staff are not allowed to charge fees for voter registration.
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said this during a Twitter space session organised by The ICIR on Permanent Voter Registration.
He spoke while responding to questions bordering on alleged cases of extortion in some registration centres.
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“Registration for voter card is free and no INEC staff nor any other individual is allowed to charge registrants any amount of money. The PVCs that we are giving are also free and in fact if you lose your PVC and ask for replacement the law says that we should reproduce that card for you absolutely free of charge. So, we don’t charge. Our staff know that and they would not do that.”
However, he noted any INEC staff that is caught engaging in extortion would be punished.
“But of course, as they say out of 11 disciples, there is always a Judas Iscariot and when we see that Judas Iscariot, we deal with them appropriately.”
According to him, two INEC staff alleged to be involved in extortion in Benue State have been withdrawn and are currently facing internal disciplinary action.
“It is extremely shameful that two of our staff were involved in the Benue case. What we saw in Benue is not the character of average INEC staff and the two INEC staff involved are currently facing disciplinary measures and if they are not careful, they will lose their job.”
Noting that some individuals are taking advantage of the rush to beat the deadline to extort money from people, Oyekanmi urged members of the public to report such cases to the Commission for disciplinary action.
“Some of these computer service people will go with some laptops and ipads to our centres and tell people that they can help them with some services. They will render their services to these unsuspecting registrants and ask them to pay.”
Oyekanmi said any staff of the Commission or any other individual caught doing such would face the wrath of the law.
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.