Section 122
Requirement of secrecy in voting(1) Every person in attendance at a polling unit including every officer charged with the conduct of an election and his or her assistants and every polling agent and candidate in attendance at a polling station or at the collation centre, as the case may be, shall maintain and aid in maintaining the secrecy of the voting.
(2) No person in attendance at a polling booth under this section shall, except for some purpose authorised by law, communicate to any person information as to the name or number on the register of any voter who has or has not voted at the place of voting.
(3) No person shall—
(a) interfere with a voter casting his or her vote, or by any other means obtain or attempt to obtain in a polling unit, information as to the candidate for whom a voter in that place is about to vote for or has voted for; or
(b) communicate at any time to any other person information obtained in a polling unit as to the candidate to whom a voter is about to vote or has voted for.
(4) Any person acting contrary to the provisions of this section commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of N100,000 or imprisonment for a term of three months or both.
This provision mandates everyone in a polling unit and election/polling officers to maintain and aid in maintaining the secrecy of voting.
It basically seeks to protect citizens from any external interference during voting and criminalises any form of interference from anyone including the staff of the Commission. Some of the offences here include:
interfering with a voter casting his or her vote
obtaining or attempting to obtain in a polling unit, information on the candidate for whom a voter is about to vote for or has voted for
sharing information obtained in a polling unit on the candidate for whom a voter is about to vote or has voted for
SHUAIBU V. MUAZU (2014) 8 NWLR (PT. 1409) 207 at 292
The essence of casting secret ballot is that the candidate for whom a voter or selector cast his votes remains unknown to others and a well-guarded secret of the voter, who cannot be compelled to disclose his choice.
See: IHO V. WOMBO (2010) LPELR - 9156 (CA) where the Court held as follows: “...Interfering with a voter casting his vote at an election amounts to harassing the voter and intimidating him.”
See also: BUHARI V. INEC (2008) LPELR-814 (SC), AKUN V. MANGU LGC & ANOR (1996) LPELR-13913 (CA)
