•Organizes workshop on violence and mitigation
By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has assured of its readiness for the Saturday, 11th November, 2023 Kogi State Governorship Election.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of INEC for Kogi State, Dr Hale Gabriel Longpet, gave the assurance at a workshop on Election Violence Mitigation and Advocacy Tool (EVMAT).
organized by the Research and Documentation Department of The Electoral Institute (TEI) of the Commission in Lokoja, the State capital.
The REC, who was represented by the Kogi State Administrative Secretary (AS), Shehu Abdul Baba, assured participants of the state’s readiness for the election .
He urged them to collect accurate data for peaceful Kogi 2023 Governorship election.
The REC further admonished the participants at the workshop to be committed to the assignment.
The Director-General (DG) of The Electoral Institute TEI, Dr Saad Umar Idris, while delivering his welcome and opening remarks appreciated the Hon. Chairman INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and the Chair, Board of The Electoral Institute (BEI), Prof. Abdullahi Abdu Zuru and the entire members of the Commission for their leadership and commitment to credible, free, fair, and peaceful elections. Abdul Zuru informed participants at the workshop that the event has been designed and geared towards equipping each with necessary skills for effective deployment of the EVMAT ahead of the Kogi State Governorship Election.
He stressed that successful risk mapping can only be achieved using accurate data.
The DG therefore urged participants to pay attention and acquire the proper skills for effective deployment of the tool at the various local governments in the State.
He stressed that the essence is to help the Commission take adequate security measures and ensure peaceful governorship elections in the state.
The DG enjoined them to give their utmost best to the success of the exercise as they were carefully selected for the survey and that the data gathered will be analysed and report forwarded to the Commission for onward sharing with security agencies and other strategic partners on election security.
The workshop was designed and structured to train field agents that will collect empirical data from across the Twenty One (21) Local Government Areas of the State, which will be analysed to identify possible hotspot ahead of the election.
The methodology workshop, aimed at training field data collection agents with the requisite skills for the deployment and administration of the standardized EVMAT Instrument.
