IDPs to Vote in Next Year’s Election, Says INEC

Laleye Dipo in Minna

Those displaced from their ancestral homes as a result of insurgency will have opportunities to exercise their franchise in the 2023 general elections, the National Commissioner in charge of Niger,  Kogi and Kwara states Professor Mohammed Sani Adam, has disclosed.

Professor Adam said in Minna Niger state yesterday  that the Internally Displaced People (IDPS) are already being registered and issued with their PVCs to enable them cast their ballots during the election. “The  commission has created a special scheme to make sure all IDP’s across the country are captured for the general elections in the country” Adam insisted, saying the commission is also taking care of all disjointed communities in the country.

Adam, who spoke to newsmen in Minna after a tour of INEC facilities in the Niger state capital, said the commission is ready for the conduct of the 2023 general elections as all logistics have been put in place.

He disclosed that the July 31 deadline for registration of voters still stands, adding that the focus of the commission there after will be to ensure all those registered got their PVCs but said INEC is not encouraging “ Mass collection or distribution of the PVCs”.

On the issue of vote-buying, Adam said it is a malaise that could jeopardize credible elections and therefore charged security agencies to be alive to their responsibilities in order to arrest the problem.

 “Vote-buying  is a national issue and a sociological problem, there is a limit to what INEC as a body  can do in terms of curtailing  vote buying during elections in the country.”

He advised politicians to always accept their defeat in good faith for democracy to be stabilized in the country saying: “ The problem with most  politicians in the country is that they  don’t always look at political offices as service to their Fatherland, but  as a means of selfish aggrandizement or means to  acquire wealth.”