The European Union Center for Electoral process in collaboration with the Kebbi State Independent Electoral Commission, has trained Electoral and Returning officers from the twenty one local government areas of the state ahead of forth coming February Local Council Elections.
Speaking on the training, the Deputy Project Coordinator, European Union Center for Electoral Process, Manji Wilson said the aim of the training was to build the capacity of the electoral officers who would in turn undertake the training of the polling staff.
According to him, the polling staff include Supervising Presiding officers, Polling Clerks and Polling Orderlies, noting that the trained Officers would explained the expectations, guidlines, regulations, and penalties for the elections.
He stressed the importance of local government elections which he said it’s the closest to the people.
The Executive Chairman, Kebbi State Independent Electoral Commission, Muhammad Aliyu Mera, said the training was for the attainment of electoral credibility which would be exemplary to other states in Nigeria.
“The objective is that, the people of Kebbi State should have the right to vote, to choose their Local Government Council representatives in an electoral environment of freedom and fairness as assured by the rule of law”.
Represented by the Commissioner incharge of Publicity and Voter Education, Mustapha Usman Kaoje, pointed out that elections in Nigeria had shown that it can be vulnerable to rigging and susceptible to a plethora of undesirable malpractices such as violence, ballot box snatching, and intimidation of voters and opponents.
Others according to him were, kidnapping of contestants, arson, bribing of electoral officers and security personnel, deliberate acts of sabotage to disorganize electoral processs and other forms of lawlessness and negative excessess that affect electoral transparency and stable political arrangements.
He therefore called on the participants to be committed on their commitment, courage and proven integrity to ensure a peaceful and successful conduct of the forth coming February elections.
Aliyu Mera reminded the participants to ensure that, they study and become knowledgeable on the legal provisions in the agency’s guidelines for the Local Government Councils Elections and others modus operandi.
Abdullahi Tukur