Double registration attracts jail term in Kwara, INEC REC tells voters

Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kwara State, Mallam Garba Attahiru Madami, has warned voters in the state to avoid engaging in double registration in the personal voters’ registration (PVR) exercise, saying that the punishment for engaging in such is a year imprisonment and a million Naira fine.

Madami issued the warning on Wednesday during a stakeholders’ meeting in Ilorin, the state capital.

The REC expressed his disappointment that some political parties are encouraging their members to engage in double registration, saying that such would get them imprisoned.

“if you do double registration, your name will be deleted and you won’t be allowed to vote and there would be a special court to try electoral offenders. So, be warned,” he said.

He, however, urged voters to transfer their registration from their previous location to their current base, saying, “you can rather do transfer from one location to another in order to avoid double registration.”

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Malami, who said that rigging has been made impossible with the new Electoral Act and new technology, added that buying PVC will be useless as facial recognition technology would be deployed.

The resident electoral commissioner said that the continuous voter registration exercise is still ongoing and at its last phase will end on June 30, saying that there won’t be an extension of time.

Also speaking at the event, Kwara State Commissioner of Police, Tuesday Assayomo, revealed that the Kwara police through its intelligence networks had identified and already arrested some political thugs likely to disrupt the electoral process.

He said that the Kwara state police command is working hard to ensure a trouble-free election, adding that the command would continue to collaborate with INEC to make the process a peaceful one.

Biola Azeez