The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has directed its officials to identify any risk or threat that may disrupt the conduct of the Kogi governorship election scheduled to hold on November 16, this year.
The commission’s national commissioner, Mrs. Amina Zakari, gave the directive Thursday in Lokoja while declaring open a two-day workshop for electoral officers, assistant electoral officers and some staff from the state and federal offices of the commission.
She said identifying early challenges to the smooth conduct of the election would help the commission to eliminate them “before it is too late.”
Zakari said the commission “depends heavily on its field officers for the success of the election,” stressing that it had put in place an Election Monitoring and Support System (EMSC) for easy coordination of field activities before and during the election.
She urged them to have good knowledge of happenings in their environment and advised them to always ensure prompt submission of reports and uploading of data to enable the headquarters to intervene on time.
Zakari also urged them to take full charge of the management of the election, saying that they must ensure absolute monitoring of ad-hoc staff under their control and ensure early distribution of election materials to polling units.
She said the workshop was organised to determine the readiness of the staff for the coming election, adding that it was also an opportunity for them to refresh their knowledge.
The commission’s national commissioner in charge of Kogi, Kwara and Nasarawa states, Alhaji Mohammed Haruna, in his remarks, said the EMSC was put in place to track implementation of electoral activities to have a better control on election management.
