Ilorin — Some pros-pective voters in Kwara State have commenced selling of their voters’ registration cards. Vanguard investigation revealed that those involved in the sale of their cards were mainly those who were engaged in multiple registration exercises while others dispose their   cards for want of money.

Voters'-registration

The registration cards, according to findings, were sold to agents of politicians seeking elective offices within the range of N2,000 and N5,000.

Worried by this development,  the state government, yesterday, cautioned those behind the act, saying it is against the constitution of Nigeria to sell voters cards.

Kwara govt reacts

According to the statement aired on Radio Kwara intermittently, the state government said it  was disturbed by the reported selling of voters cards by some market women in the state, noting that this was uncalled for at this period of the nation’s democracy.

The statement cautioned the perpetrators to desist from such action as anybody caught selling their voter’s card would be dealt with according to the constitution of the country.

The statement, however, explained that their “voters’ cards are meant to elect the leaders that would lead them and not to sell the voters cards to anyone in the state.”

REC expresses concern

It would be recalled that  the Independent National Electoral Commission,  INEC,  in Kwara had expressed concern  over cases of multiple registrations and that of under-aged noticed across the state.

INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Chief Timothy Ibitoye, in a statement warned the residents to desist from such attitude because immediately after the display period, the commission would move to the next stage of running, the Automated Finger Identification System, AFIS, which is a special server that would detect multiple registration.

Ibitoye explained that at that stage,  a lot of units and communities who had  engaged in multiple registrations would be detected and their names struck out completely,  and the  names of affected persons compiled for prosecution.

He said multiple registrations would reduce the total number of registrants in their area, community, and the state as a whole.

The INEC Commissioner who added that anyone that is caught as an under aged person in any of the units will be handed over to the law enforcement agents stressed that so far all registration units have been given full complement of DDC machines and other accessories.

Similarly, National Association of Kwara state students in a communiqué  issued by its national president Comrade Musa Is_haq at the end of its joint meeting dissociated itself from students who were involved in multiple registration exercise with N500.

‘’We therefore call on INEC under the leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega to use all the resources at its disposal to fish out these categories of students and their sponsors for prosecution” added the statement.