The CLEEN Foundation says it has launched election security support centres for the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states, to ensure free, fair processes.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed 19th of September 2020 for the Edo election and 10th October, 2020 for the Ondo governorship election.
The party political primaries have been scheduled from 2nd to 27th of June for Edo State and 2nd to 25th of July 2020, respectively.
In a press statement released on Thursday and made available to the media, the foundation’s CEO Benson Olugbuo, Ph.D said the foundation will conduct security threat assessments in both states to support key stakeholders, especially the INEC and security officials with empirical data for the deployment of manpower and other resources for the elections.
In addition, the foundation will recruit, train and deploy volunteers across all the local government areas in both states to observe, document and report in real time, security incidents and threats to the upcoming elections.
“CLEEN Foundation will collate, analyse and disseminate the findings to relevant stakeholders before, during and after the elections.
“We will deploy the Tella Application, an ICT-based human rights platform for mapping of security risk factors across the states through real-time observation, documentation and analysis of accredited observers’ reports on the conduct of security officials during the elections. The Tella Application will be scripted with key questions from the Electoral Violence Mitigation and Advocacy Tool (EVMAT) developed by the Electoral Institute of the INEC and our foundation, with support from the UK Department for International Development (DfID).”
Olugbuo advised he INEC to ensure that it liaises with other stakeholders and the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to review the Covid-19 regulations related to the conduct of elections during the pandemic, ensure that civil society organisations interested in observing the elections including party primaries are duly accredited, organised specialised training for security personnel to be deployed for election duty under covid-19 pandemic to ensure optimal performance, political parties should ensure free, fair and inclusive primaries.
“The National Orientation Agency and other government institutions should intensify efforts in sensitizing and educating citizens in Edo and Ondo states on how to exercise their franchise while following government guidelines on physical distancing.
“The media, both print and electronic, should be given free hand to perform their duties and should be protected from overzealous security agents and political thugs.
“There is an urgent need to provide personal protective equipment for security officers deployed on election duty during Covid-19 pandemic and their welfare should be made a priority,” Olugbuo wrote in the statement.
