The governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, was Thursday formally accused by the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, of registering for permanent voter card twice, in violation of federal electoral law.
The electoral body said Mr. Bello acted “illegally” to have registered for voter’s card in Abuja and Kogi, but said it could not take action against the governor because he is constitutionally protected from prosecution while in office.
Mr. Bello’s criminal behaviour came to light when photographs showed him being registered for by INEC officials in his office in Lokoja, his state capital. He had earlier been registered in Abuja.
“The Governor’s double registration and doing so outside INEC’s designated centres are both illegal,” INEC’s national commissioner and chairman voter education committee, Solomon Soyebi, said on Thursday.
The commission denied authorising any staff or citizen to “re-register him or any citizen or to do so outside our designated CVR centres”.
Mr. Soyebi confirmed Gov. Bello was first registered at Wuse Zone 4, Abuja, on January 30, 2011, but illegally did so again on May 23, during the ongoing continuous voter’s registration exercise, in his Lokoja, Kogi State, Office.
He said the commission “is taking disciplinary action against the INEC staff involved”, but regretted the governor’s immunity would help him escape prosecution.
“As for the State Governor, Section 308(1) (a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) precludes INEC from prosecuting him while in office,” Mr. Soyebi said.
Nevertheless, his second and illegal registration now stands cancelled.
“However, INEC wishes to state that it has cancelled his second and illegal registration forthwith because our Electoral Law and the Commission’s guidelines make no exception for anyone to register more than once and outside the designated areas,” Mr. Soyebi said.
