The Kogi State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Yusuf has tasked Civil Society Organisations to help deepen voter Education ahead of the 2023 general elections to enable the electorate to participate fully.
Kogi State Commissioner for Police who was represented by the Assistant Commissioner of Police operation, Kogi State Command, ASP Anthony Placid, stated this on Tuesday at a one-day sensitization workshop organised by Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) in conjunction with Participation Initiative for Behavioural Change for Development for 100 training of Local Government Areas Observers.
He urged Civil Society Organisations to through committees, and organise workshops, supports the electoral commission for a free, fair and credible election.
The ACP called for increased media awareness by Civil Society Organisations to help counter-violence, and ensure peace and conflict resolution through mediation and dialogue, said CSOs’ roles in responding to the crises through early warning cannot be overemphasized.
Speaking on the roles of Civil Society in Observing Election, the ACP urged Civil Society Organisations to ensure a participatory democracy through awareness creation through the peace-building process, said the Kogi State Police Command has done a threat analysis on perceived areas of violence, assured that the Command is fully ready to ensure a peaceful, credible election.
The ACP urged the Civil Society Organisations to allow for support to the Electoral Commission to take the form of support for the institutional and democratic process and described the 2023 general election as one that requires that all hands must be on deck.
The ACP called for the participation of women and Young people so that they people are allowed to exercise their rights and not be disenfranchised through sensitization, said the security agencies are committed to ensuring peace, before, during and after the general election.
While pointing out that men of the Police Command will deploy drones in other to capture areas of the scene, said the welfare of officers has been taken care of, pointing out that the Police in the State have undergone a series of training to better prepare its men.
Civil Society Organisations he added can help reduce conflict and ensure a peaceful election, pointing out that election security revolves around the provision of free fair and credible elections before, during and after the election which must be the priority of CSOs, urged Observers to be apolitical.
The ACP urged Civil Society Organisations towards ensuring peace and development through mechanisms to monitor the election by developing an independent mechanism to monitor biases and violence.
While he urged Civil Society Organisations to ensure that they contribute to the future of credible election monitoring through sub-committees that will highlight areas of early warning signs to provide for responses by security agencies.
The ACP said Civil Society Organisations have significant roles to play in peacebuilding by speaking to parties without losing credibility, ensuring neutrality and being impartial, called on the CSOs to ensure that people of questionable characters are not presented for election.
The ACP described the CSOs as one of the paramount non-State actors in conducting acceptable polls, and urged them to promote peacebuilding, but should be safety conscious while monitoring the election.
Mr Anthony called on the observers to deploy technology, and TV Channels to create election awareness, expand coalition, and cooperation, and increased effectiveness in monitoring in different geographical locations, pointing out that as CSOs monitoring the election, their report should not be correct INEC during the polls.
He recommended that CSOs should come together to move for laws that would give credibility to the election in the country, urged them to make provisions for security for protection, and work on improving their managerial structure and capacity for better monitoring.
The theme of the Training Workshop titled Supporting Citizens Engagement Towards The 2023 General Election, Training of LGA Observers, was held at the PIBCID Conference Hall, Lokoja, is made possible by Transition Monitoring Group TMG, with funding from USAID and Palladium.
Speaking on the essence of the training, the Acting Executive Director, PIBCID, said the training is to better equip about 100 observers to be deployed by TMG for the 2023 general election in the State.