Politicians Are Buying PVCs From Voters – INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmood Alleges

Politicians Are Buying PVCs From Voters – INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmood Alleges

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor
Mahmood Yakubu, has alleged that some corrupt politicians have been
buying up Permanent Voter Cards or inducing voters financially to
collect the Voter Identification Numbers ahead of the 2019 general
elections.

Mahmood made the allegation when he spoke at the quarterly
consultative meeting with political parties in Abuja, where he presented
the 2019 voter register and electoral guidelines to the parties.

“A new method of vote-buying is being devised. We have received
credible information that some partisan actors are now going round
buying up PVCs from voters or financially inducing them to collect the
VINs 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.

“By collecting the VINs, they may be acting on the mistaken notion
that our system can be hacked into and the card readers somehow
preloaded ahead of election and compromised. We want to assure Nigerians
that we are aware of the new tricks. It is a futile effort; we will
work with security agencies to deal with the violators of our electoral
laws, including those who may be trying to compromise our staff
responsible for making the PVCs available for collection by the
legitimate voters.” he said