A specialised elections monitoring group – Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), has commissioned bureaux in all the six Southwest states as part of efforts to monitor and mitigate cases of electoral violence ahead of general elections.
The launching of bureaux and monitoring and evaluation officers was borne out of calculated plans to ensure free, fair and credible general elections in Southwest and Nigeria in general with a view to curbing cases of electoral violence that may occur in the electoral process.
BusinessDay reports that the launching of bureaux against the electoral violence was undertaken in Abeokuta by KDI in conjunction with the British government – UKaid; United States government – USAID and International Foundation for Electoral Systems.
Speaking at a Town Hall Meeting held in Abeokuta on Thursday, Titilayo Alabi, facilitator of the programme, declared that the electoral violence is possible in some Southwest states, including Ogun, Oyo, Lagos and Ekiti and there must be frantic efforts to curb such incidences.
Alabi said that the surveys conducted in all the states mentioned showed that the cases of electoral violence during and after the elections are feasible and INEC, Security agencies, government and electorate, especially youths and women must rise to the occasion and foil such incidences.
Adefemi Soneye, Ogun state Coordinator for Nigeria Election Violence Report (NEVR) stressed in his address that security sector engagement and educating the youths against electoral violence would play a significant role in reducing the rate of violence during and after election.
Soneye, who gave out toll free line dedicated for curbing electoral violence to the general public – (080-0001-0000) in the event of violence as well as other electoral malpractices, explained to the participants on how to use the NEVR reporting platforms and the participants were given the chance to sign and recite the violence free pledge.
Also, Wale Aboyeji, Superintendent of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), who spoke on behalf of combined security forces present, noted that all the security agencies deployed for the elections were up to the task and there would be strong synergy among them all as the security men have been well briefed on what to do to ensure that violence free elections and other electoral malpractices.
RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta
