An election observer group, Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA), has called for synergy among security agencies during elections.
This is to curtail incidence of electoral violence as experienced during recent polls in the country.
The Executive Director of the non-governmental organization, Faith Nwadishi, made the recommendation in Asaba, Delta State capital, at a ‘Stakeholders Roundtable Towards the 2023 Governorship and State Houses of Assembly Elections’.
Nwadishi also identified misinformation by a section of the media, vote trading and logistics problems as some of the challenges noticed in the last Presidential and National Assembly elections.
She urged INEC and security agencies to make the necessary adjustments in time for the coming elections, noting a situation room would be launched by the organization in Asaba to monitor the Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly elections across the country.
“Especially issues arising from the non-upload of election results from the polling units, security lapses should be plugged while compromised INEC staff should be removed,” she said.
The Asagba of Asaba, Prof. Obi Chike Edozien, represented by Chief Dr. Chris Chukwura, also decried the lapses experienced during the last election and tasked INEC to make efforts to reassure Nigerians with a good outing in subsequent polls.
The Delta State Director of the National Orientation Agency, Mr. Chris Anyabuine, stated that proper education of the masses about electoral processes was a solution to issues such as voided votes and vote selling, thus the NOA had intensified its sensitization initiatives especially in rural areas.
He stressed that NOA was engaging “with our people in the villages and the communities and talk to them on the language that they understand, and get them to imbibe the right attitude”.
Representatives of the Federal Road Safety Commission, the Police, the Nigerian Immigration Service and the Correctional Service participated at the summit, where recommendations were made on efforts towards ensuring peaceful, free and fair Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly Elections across the country.
