A coalition of non-governmental organization (NGOs) in Nigeria, the Nigeria Situation Room, has trained 79 election observers in Kogi state.
The Situation Room in Kogi State, under the Coordinator-ship of Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR) and facilitated by Comrade Idris Miliki Abdul, trained the election observers in Lokoja on Thursday.
According to the facilitator, Idris Miliki Abdul, the observers will be deployed to the 21 local government areas of Kogi state.
They will observe and report the conducts of elections by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the 25th February and 11st March, 2023 respectively.
Miliki said with the successful conclusion of the training exercise, the Situation Room in Kogi and its observers are fully ready to observe the 2023 elections in the state.
He called on Nigerians to be patient and work for the success of 2023 elections by participating actively and vote for candidate and party of their choice without inducement of any kind.
He admonished electorate to restrain from any form of electoral violence as election is a contest between parties and individuals.
He also called on politicians and their supporters to follow the rules of the elections diligently.
The training featured ‘Importance and Objectives of Election Observation’, ‘The Rights and Responsibility of Observers Particularly on Election Day’, ‘Processes and Filing of Election Reports, Electronic Format of transferring reports to Situation Room National Secretariat on Election Day’, which include incident reports and other relevant information that can help the election process.
Role Play was conducted on the use of BVAS and the role of presiding officers and voters on election day.
Kits were distributed to all the trained observers.
Haliru Haruna Sule, Head of Voters’ Education and Publicity, who represented the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, commended the effort of the civil society organizations (CSOs) in partnership with INEC towards the conduct of free, fair and credible elections.
He assured the organizers and participants that elections shall hold as scheduled and solicit for continuous collaboration among stakeholders towards a successful elections.
