Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has said that the party will not condone participation of under-aged voters in the Saturday’s rescheduled presidential election.
Speaking to journalists Wednesday while presenting an electoral guide that will assist APC poll agents in their assignment during the Saturday’s presidential election, the Director of Planning and Monitoring, APC Campaign Council, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said no underage person will be allowed to participate in voting during the election.
He said that the Electoral Act (as amended 2010) is very explicit on what age is allowed to register to vote, adding that anyone doing so is impersonating.
“By the nomenclature of it, under age voting is unlawful. If you are not old enough to vote, why should you even go and register in the first place.
“So, it shouldn’t even arise; it shouldn’t happen; why should an under-aged person go near the polling station on the election day if the process is what it should be?
Let us take it for what it is; the Act is impersonation and the law is very clear on what should happen to whoever is caught doing so,” he said.
On the campaign council’s assessment of the preparations by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the minister urged the commission to do everything to win back the confidence of Nigerians by ensuring that the election holds as scheduled on Saturday without much hindrance.
He, however, rejected the calls by some stakeholders, urging the INEC’s chairman to resign on the account of last week’s postponement of the presidential election.
When asked whether as the Minister of Works, Housing and Power, he is going to give guarantees to Nigerians that power supply will be relatively stable to facilitate the electoral process, Fashola said, “In terms of power supply, what I can guarantee is that the situation continues to improve and we need to work more on it when I finish here.
“If you check some weeks now the power generation has increased to about 5,000 megawatts and also on daily basis at peak demand. So, we are getting better; we have commissioned three power stations, one in Damaturu in Yobe State, and another in Abeokuta in Ogun State.
“Power supply is getting better but like every mechanical gadgets, even your cameras sometimes may glitch but we have the ability to fix them,” he said.
Fashola used the occasion to list some of the steps that the party agents are expected to take in ensuring that the voting process is transparent and credible.
