The suggestion for married underage girls to have voting rights has been rejected by the senate committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Kabiru Gaya,
chairman of the senate committee revealed this while answering questions at the
NAN Forum in Abuja on Tuesday February 2.
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.”
Also
commenting on the suggestion for elections not to hold on Saturdays, Gaya
averred that same argument will be made if elections are moved to Fridays and
Sundays.
He added;
“If we move
elections to Fridays some people will say it is their worship day; if we move
it to Sundays, some other people will say it is also their worship day. So,
that suggestion was also thrown out."
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