Senate Rejects Voting Right For Married Underage Girls

BY BODE GBADEBO  |

The Senate declared yesterday that married underage girls will not be eligible to vote during elections.

Chairman of the Senate committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Kabiru Gaya, who stated this, noted that the suggestion that married underage girls should have the right to vote had been rejected.

The recommendation that underage married girls should be recognised as eligible voters attracted backlash from several quarters last year.

Fielding comments at the NAN Forum in Abuja yesterday, Gaya said, “One of the people who came to the public hearing submitted the memorandum, and argued that the word underage was not his, but that any woman or man that is married should be considered as an adult.

“That was his reason. Our own resolve is that if a woman is at the age of 16 and she gets married, she should not be allowed to vote.

“Generally there was a lot of noise about. It was in a memorandum submitted by a group of people and they have their rights as Nigerians.

“But when we came to the committee, we discussed a lot on that and at the end of the day, we felt we could not go along with that suggestion and it was dropped.”

Gaya said there was another suggestion not to hold elections on Saturdays as some faithful observe the day as their holy day, noting however that the same argument would be made if elections were fixed for Fridays or Sundays.

Meanwhile, president of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has said that the 2023 general elections will see a drastic reduction in electoral violence after the amended version of the Electoral Act is passed in June this year.

Lawan gave the assurance yesterday while fielding questions after delivering a lecture at the National Defence College (NDC) Course 29 Programme in Abuja.

According to the Senate president, the Electoral Act which is being amended by the 9th National Assembly will provide for an Electoral Offences…