By Francis Onoiribholo Bureau Chief Benin
Ahead of the September, 21 Edo State governorship election, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room has trained Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that will observe the election.
The Co-Convener, Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room and Executive Director, Women’s Rights to Education Programme (WREP), Abuja, Dr. Mimidoo Achakpa disclosed this during an engagement with security agencies, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Civil Society Organisations and other stakeholders in the Edo governorship election in Benin City over the weekend.
According to Achakpa, “We have come from the Nigeria civil society situation room to engage the critical stakeholders in this election.
When I say critical stakeholders, I mean the security agencies, different arms of the security agencies that will be out in the field before, during and after the election, as well as civil society organizations that work on election related matters.
“We have trained some observers that would be out in the field to observe the conduct of the election, the voting pattern, the conduct of the security agencies, and also the conduct of the party agents, other stàkeholders, including election observers and then they will report back to us.
“Thereafter, we will come up with a report and probably if there are loose areas that need to be tightened up, we will do that and present the report to the INEC and also to other stakeholders so that this will form part of the reference for future elections” she said.
Dr Achakpa on behalf of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room commended the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, (FCDO) and UK International Development for supporting the programme.
Also speaking to newsmen, one of the organisers, the Programme Officer of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Innocent Edemharhia stated that the situation room will ensure that CSOs observe the process effectively, adding that ANEEJ is part of the process.
“The situation room will ensure that CSOs effectively monitor the electoral process. We are part of the process, we are undertaking series of activities like civic education, public awareness, campaign against violence. we are interfacing with security agents to connect loose ends to see that if we have concerns, we present to them and they also respond to the concerns that we have to ensure that there’s a smooth election”.
While enumerating the concerns raise thus far by the situation room, Edemharhia noted that their reports after elections have largely form the basis of electoral reforms, adding that they are presently advocating for the collation of election results electronically such that all results uploaded into the INEC portal are summed up by the platform.
He however deplored the absence of the Nigerian Police at the engagement forum.
“Unfortunately the Nigerian Police who is a major player is not here, but some of the concerns we have raised, we don’t have immediate response to them here, they have taken note of some of them and they have also explained to us the measures they are taking in ensuring that there will be a peaceful election.
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“You know there have been some series of cult clashes in the state and we are aware that there are plenty of arms in the hands of civilians and we have raised the concern that this will potentially undermine the electoral process.
“They gave us account of the efforts they have made to recover arms from civilians, to arrest those known cult members and all of that; and we think they should do more to ensure there are no arms in the hands of thugs during this election and they have also assured us that they will do their best to achieve that.
ANEEj representative also hinted that the reports they have writing informed some of the reforms of the electoral process.
For instance, according to him, “we are suggesting now that INEC should be doing continuous voter registration so as to forestall hijack of the exercise by politicians when it is no no close to election. We also want electronic voting and electronic collation of results.
“Let the platform be designed to sum up the results from the various polling units. We are also calling for the prosecution of electoral offenders to serve as deterent to others”, he also stated.
The Deputy Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in charge of Edo State, DCC Alfred Etinagbedia noted that the stakeholders engagement was enriching, pointing out that it has X-rayed all probable security situations as it relates to the election.
“Today’s event has been an eye opener, it was very enlightening. It was done to X- Ray all probable security situations as it relates to the September 21 Edo State gubernatorial election.
“We have interacted and highlighted areas of possible deployment by the various security agencies to cover all electoral personnel and materials and how to protect the environment for the election in order to have a peaceful and credible election in the state.
“Participants also talked about areas of probable threats and how to overcome such threats.
“There have been training and retraining of personnel we have deployed to all the polling units”.
While deploring the absence of the Police and INEC, Olumide Dosunmu, the Edo State Coordinator of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), commended the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room for organising the dialogue.
“I am happy that the situation room brought about this dialogue today, but unfortunately some critical stakeholders like the Nigerian police and INEC are not here so that we can ask them some questions concerning the election, but be that as it may, it was a fruitful one and the NCSDC was present and they gave us clarity on some issues regarding the deployment of their personnel, their training and preparedness for the election.
I also want to encourage the CSOs to be very active in reporting issues of electoral violence during the election”.
