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From Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
Drawing from the experiences of the last year Nov 19 kogi governorship election , the Kukah centre has advised Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure early arrivals of its personnel and voting materials in the forthcoming Edo and Ondo States governorship election so as to forestall voters’ apathy and low turnout.
The Kukah Centre specifically said aged people , pregnant women and people living with disabilities do not have the strengths to stand long hours in the queues waiting for the arrival of INEC personnel and voting materials before they get discouraged and start leaving for home.
At a round table discussion with Stakeholders in lokoja ,the Kogi State capital , the Centre observed that the late arrival of voting materials in the last governorship election in Kogi accounted for 44.4 percent voters’ low turnout .
The Centre also observed that vote buying was rife and the police in the state lack the necessary equipment , personnel and motivation to carry out their duties especially during the pre election campaigns and after the election.
It also observed that the heavy deployment of security personnel especially soldiers on election day helped in no small measures to curb electoral violence in Kogi and asked the federal government to do same for Edo and Ondo States governorship elections respectively.
While disclosing that it deployed his personnel round the 21 local government areas of the state to monitor the pre election campaigns , election proper and the post election matters, it said it observed that BIVAS functionality in the areas covered was about 94.4 %.
The programme tagged ” From polls to peace” with the theme ” Strengthening social integration and peace initiative in kogi state” drew participants from INEC , security organisations, religious bodies traditional institutions, civil society organizations among others.
The project aims to enhance the effectiveness of the National Peace Committee by fostering it’s role in facilitating non violent elections and promoting peace in Nigeria.
Earlier, the chairman of the National Peace Committee, Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar (retd) called on the people of Edo and Ondo States to embrace peace and conduct themselves in orderly manner for peaceful governorship elections coming up soon in their respective states.
The former Head of State , represented on the occasion by Emmanuel Nkanta the project manager of Kukah centre said all the political actors should realize that after the election, they will be life to live and therefore urged them to embrace peace in all their activities.
The programme featured video documentary of the National Peace Committee , presentation of the findings from the off cycle election in Kogi State and panel discussion among others.
