Plot to Rig April Polls Begins

- Secret Trade in  Voter Cards Spreads 
- KANO: We’re guilty of the offence, say politicians 
- KATSINA: Grains exchange for voter cards 
- ADAMAWA: Marwa, Nyako trade blames 
- RIVERS: Hausa youths take Ijaw names 
- INEC: We’re aware

If the provisions of the 2010 Electoral Act are to be implemented to the fullest, many politicians in Nigeria will be sent to jails for up to 12 months or be compelled to pay a fine of N1 million each for  illicit trade in voter cards.

Investigations by Sunday Trust correspondents in several states, including Kano, Adamawa, Katsina, Rivers and Bayelsa, revealed the secret trade in voter cards. Youths are being engaged in some states to scout for voter cards and deliver to politicians for a fee, while in some states, peasants, who are potential voters, are being enticed with weekly handout of grains.

In some other states, politicians have registered persons from other communities and even foreigners, in the hope that these ‘voters’ would cast their ballot papers in favour of their sponsors.

Section 120 subsection (1d) of the Electoral Act stipulates that any person who “buys, sells, procures or deals, in voter cards other than as  provided in this Act commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of N1,000,000 or imprisonment for 12 months or both.

Subsection (1a, b & c) of the Act says that: any person who “being entitled to a voter’s card, gives it to some other person for use at an election other than an officer appointed and acting in the course of his duty under those Act... will be punished.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Mr Kayode Idowu, told Sunday Trust that his organisation was aware of the illicit trade in voter cards.

Idowu explained that “it is an electoral malpractice.  It is an offence to buy or sell voter cards.” He warned also that “it is an exercise in futility. Voters will be accredited simultaneously all over the country. A single voter can’t be at two polling stations at the same time,” he said.

The INEC spokesperson said that those indulged in the crime are wasting their time “because it won’t be business as usual.” He said: “It is politicians in desperation. They still believed that it will be business as usual. But they will be proved wrong after the April polls,” Idowu said.