The Chairman of INEC Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said at the presentation of the Voter Register for the 2019 general election to political parties on Monday in Abuja that the commission had received credible information that some partisan actors were going round buying up Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) from voters or financially inducing them to collect the Voter Identification Numbers (VIN) on their PVCs.
“In some instances, telephone numbers and details of bank accounts of voters have been collected. By collecting the PVCs, their intention may be to deprive the voters of voting since no one can vote without the PVC.
“By collecting their phone numbers and bank details, the intention is to induce voters by electronic transfer of funds to their accounts since it will be difficult to buy votes at polling units,” he said.
He, however, reassured Nigerians that INEC was aware of the new tricks and that it was a futile effort.
Yakubu said that INEC would work with the security agencies to deal with the violators of the electoral laws, including those who may be trying to compromise the staff of INEC responsible for making the PVCs available for collection by legitimate voters.
He said that the commission had responded to the vote buying menace in three ways, including the alteration of the configuration of polling units by moving the ballot boxes closer to the voting cubicles, making it difficult for voters to expose their marked ballot papers.
“Secondly, we have introduced a partial ban on the use of mobile phone and other photographic devices by voters while in the voting cubicles.
“Thirdly, we are introducing the rolling and flattening of ballot papers by voters before casting them into the ballot boxes,’’ he added.