Kogi governorship poll: CSOs take awareness campaign to flash points

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Kogi said that they had mapped out areas in the state prone to electoral violence and malpractices for sensitisation as the Nov. 16 governorship draws nearer.

Mr Victor Adejoh, Chairman of Kogi Non-Governmental Organisations Network (KONGONET), disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lokoja.

Adejoh said the CSOs, registered under KONGONET, would engage traditional rulers, religious leaders and youths in those identified locations on the need to eschew violence.

He also said that the CSOs would collaborate with international agencies to carry out different levels of awareness creation.

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He said “We are intensifying our activities to ensure that traditional rulers, religious leaders, faith and community-based organisations, as well as relevant associations are trained to strengthen the awareness, to avoid violence.

“What is critical is that we will be collaborating as well with the media to ensure that messages go to the grassroots and electorate, to ensure that they participate in a free and fair manner and eschew violence.

“We are also working with government agencies as well the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and with some NGOs like `Enough is Enough’.

“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is at the centre of this whole engagement.INEC is very key and strategic to these processes as its advocacy unit is also supporting this voter education.’’

Adejoh said that although the expectation of KONGONET was to achieve a violence-free, fair and credible election on Nov. 16, “we are also concerned with how parties conduct their primaries.

“The political parties should conduct free and fair primaries, if that happens, we are likely to have less tension”, he said.