INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzi denied knowledge of the incident in Katsina. The Katsina North Senatorial by-election which was held on Saturday, August 11, 2018, has come and gone.The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Ahmad Babba Kaita was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),Ahmad pulled in a total of 224,607 votes to defeat his older brother and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Kabir Babba-Kaita.One thing that will remain in the minds of most people, is the way children were allowed to roam about during the election.Thought they did not vote, kids were reportedly parading various polling units and playing near the polling booths.According to Premium Times, some of them even had to make use of the opportunity to sell sweets and snacks to hungry voters. The report also stated that children who were at the polling units outnumbered adults who had come to vote.Some were seen in other polling units hanging on trees while their peers played and danced around to the amazement of some election officials.Security operatives who were assigned to some of the units took it upon themselves to chase the wandering children away, but they kept coming back to play.In one incident, a stampede occurred at a polling unit when someone decided to give the children some food.In a particular polling unit, the children were seen counting the votes along with the electoral officer in Hausa. What the law saysAccording to Premium Times, “Section. 129 (1) of the Electoral Act states that ‘no person shall on the date an election…loiter without lawful excuse after voting or after being refused to vote…in a polling unit or within a distance of 300 metres of a polling unit’.“The law says that any person who contravenes this commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of N100, 000 or imprisonment for 6 months for every such offence’.”ReactionsReacting to the development, a members of a civil society group – Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Austin Aigbe said “How did the children get to the polling station? The process is simply, on election day, there are restriction of movement, and only eligible voters with PVC are allowed a walking distance to their respective polling unit. The Nigerian constitution prescribe that a person must be 18 or above to be eligible to vote. Allowing children to participate in elections is, therefore the highest level of violation of our electoral laws.” INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzi denied knowledge of the incident in Katsina.According to Osaze-Uzi, nothing like that was contained in the report which was submitted after the election.“I’m not aware of that. I didn’t see that in our report.“But ordinarily on Election Day, within the vicinity of the polling unit, you ought to have a distance… to be there,” he said.The Katsina North Senatorial District comprises of Daura (President Buhari’s hometown), Maiadua, Zango, Sandamu, Baure, Mani, Mashi, Dutsi, Ingawa, Bindawa, Kankiya and Kusada Local Government Areas.
