Married Underaged Girls: Senate Rejects Voting Rights

 

The Senate Committee On INEC Rejects Voting Rights For Married Underaged Girls.

The Chairman of the Committee Senator  Kabiru Gaya revealed at the NAN forum held in Abuja on Tuesday that the suggestion that Underaged aged girls who are married be allowed to vote was rejected.

Speaking at the forum, Gaya said a memorandum was submitted by a group of people at a public hearing but was thrown out by the committee even though there was an argument during which one of the people who attended the hearing tried to stipulate that the word 'underage' can be by passed asserting that married persons should be considered adults. 

He said, 

"That was his reason, our own resolve is that if a woman at the age of 16 gets married she would not be allowed to vote. 

" Generally there was a lot of noise about it, it was a memorandum submitted and they have their rights as Nigerians to express themselves but when we came to the committee, we discussed and in the end came to a conclusion that we could not go with the suggestions by these group of people and therefore dropped it. "

He also added that suggestions were made on days on which elections could hold in Nigeria, as some persons  tried to say that Saturdays as worship days for some Nigerians.

Reacting to the suggestions on change of election day, Gaya said

" If we move elections to Fridays, some people will  still argue that it's their worship dya and the same goes for Sunday. Therefore, that suggestion was also thrown out.".