INEC warns youths against being used to disrupt elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has urged the Nigerian youths not to allow themselves to be used to disrupt the for...

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has urged the Nigerian youths not to allow themselves to be used to disrupt the forthcoming General Elections, or engage in other unlawful acts capable of jeopardizing peace in the country.

The chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who gave the advice yesterday in Abuja at a National Youth Summit organised by the commission, also urged the INEC Youth Ambassadors (IYA) to continue to work for the success of the elections.

According to him, conflict, violence and disruption are the exact antitheses of credible elections and that since the majority are the youths, they should participate in the elections peacefully and not allow themselves to be mobilized for the wrong reasons.

"Don't be mobilized for doing the wrong things by people whose feature is already determined. The future is yours not for those who may wish for all manner of reasons to mobilize you in the wrong direction," Yakubu said.

He said that though the use of mobile phone was banned at voting cubicle where accredited voters cast their votes, people were free to use their phones at the general areas of the polling units.

He said, "After the election, I will encourage you to snap pictures of the EC60E and for those of you who engage in vote tabulation you can easily tabulate and have an idea on the outcome of the election, even before INEC make declaration."

He said that as the youths constituted about 81 percent of the 80,004,084 of the total registered voters, the forthcoming General Elections is the elections of the young people.

He said that the youth in the just-released voter registered has 42, 938,458 voters which constitute 51.1 percent of the total registered voters.