{"id":164047,"date":"2025-05-24T23:07:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T22:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/coercing-nigerians-to-vote-during-elections-unconstitutional-nnpp-chieftain"},"modified":"2025-05-25T00:11:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T23:11:53","slug":"coercing-nigerians-to-vote-during-elections-unconstitutional-nnpp-chieftain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/coercing-nigerians-to-vote-during-elections-unconstitutional-nnpp-chieftain","title":{"rendered":"Coercing Nigerians to vote during elections unconstitutional \u2013 NNPP chieftain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>A chieftain of New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo has kicked against the move by House of Representatives to make voting during elections compulsory.<\/p>\n<p>Oguntoyinbo maintained the move by the lawmakers to force Nigerians to vote in the elections is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>The NNPP chieftain disclosed his opinion in a statement made available on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers at the House of Representatives had introduced \u201cA Bill for an Act to Amend the Electoral Act 2022, to make it mandatory for all Nigerians of majority age to vote in all National and State Elections and for Related Matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But, Oguntoyinbo warned that such a move is an attempt to tamper with the rights of citizens, describing it as a violation of civil liberties and democratic principles.<\/p>\n<p>He warned that the bill was a misplaced priority, insisting that voting during an election is obligatory and not compulsory.<\/p>\n<p>The NNPP chieftain maintained that any attempt to make it compulsory is a violation of the citizens rights.<\/p>\n<p>He siad, \u201cin a democracy, voting is a civil liberty, not a legal obligation, saying compelling citizens to vote through coercive measures infringes on their fundamental rights. The bill is inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSection 39(1) of the Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to remain silent, dissent, and abstain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bill being introduced by the House of Representatives to make voting compulsory in Nigeria aside being undemocratic is not practicable because, among other things, the country lacks citizen\u2019s data base.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAdequate citizens\u2019 database is a precursor for a compulsory voting and the House of Representatives, like other Nigerians know that the country lacks adequate database to carry out such enforcement\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. A chieftain of New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo has kicked against the move by House of Representatives to make voting during elections compulsory. Oguntoyinbo maintained the move by the lawmakers to force Nigerians to vote in the elections is unconstitutional. The NNPP chieftain disclosed his opinion in a statement [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":164045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[254,2540],"class_list":["post-164047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-nigeria","tag-nnpp"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Coercing Nigerians to vote during elections unconstitutional \u2013 NNPP chieftain - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A chieftain of New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo has kicked against the move by House of Repres ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/coercing-nigerians-to-vote-during-elections-unconstitutional-nnpp-chieftain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coercing Nigerians to vote during elections unconstitutional \u2013 NNPP chieftain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A chieftain of New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo has kicked against the move by House of Repres ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/coercing-nigerians-to-vote-during-elections-unconstitutional-nnpp-chieftain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-24T22:07:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-24T23:11:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/sm_1748115747.091157.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/coercing-nigerians-to-vote-during-elections-unconstitutional-nnpp-chieftain#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/coercing-nigerians-to-vote-during-elections-unconstitutional-nnpp-chieftain\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Coercing Nigerians to vote during elections unconstitutional \u2013 NNPP chieftain\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-24T22:07:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-24T23:11:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/coercing-nigerians-to-vote-during-elections-unconstitutional-nnpp-chieftain\"},\"wordCount\":302,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/coercing-nigerians-to-vote-during-elections-unconstitutional-nnpp-chieftain#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/sm_1748115747.091157.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\",\"NNPP\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/coercing-nigerians-to-vote-during-elections-unconstitutional-nnpp-chieftain#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/coercing-nigerians-to-vote-during-elections-unconstitutional-nnpp-chieftain\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/coercing-nigerians-to-vote-during-elections-unconstitutional-nnpp-chieftain\",\"name\":\"Coercing Nigerians to vote during elections unconstitutional \u2013 NNPP chieftain - 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