Cleen foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has launched its Election Security Support Centre for the monitoring and reporting of the 2019 general elections.
Dr Benson Olugbuo, Executive Director of the foundation, said on Friday at the launch in Abuja that the centre would ensure adequate coverage of the elections and real-time security situation analysis around the elections.
Olugbuo said that through the centre, there would be observation on the conduct of security agents deployed on election duty for the Feb. 16 and March 2 elections.
“The centre will be located at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel-Maitama, Abuja and will be operational from Friday 15th to 17th February 2019.
“Cleen foundation will provide exact and up to date analysis of happenings from the polls in the Pre-election, election day and post election day.
“Our analysis will be centered on security situation of the elections and the conduct of Police Officers. The Centre will deploy different technologies that will enable it to broadcast live incidents from election field as they happen.
“The Centre will also be composed of technical experts in politics, policing, elections management, gender, communication including data analysis.
“Information from our observers will be fact-checked before releasing same to the public, while doubtful information that cannot be verified will be discarded.
“These are part of our support to counter fake news and misinformation that can trigger election violence which we are working to avert.” he said.
Olugbuo said that the foundation had trained law enforcement officers of the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps on Electoral Security Management.
According to him, the series of trainings were conducted across the six geo-political zones while trained officers also conducted step-down training for officers in their various divisions who were not part of the training.
He also said that it had trained and deployed 1,620 election observers to monitor the conduct of security agents during the elections across the 774 local governments in the 36 states of the federation and in Abuja.
He noted that the observers were trained to observe and report the conduct of security personnel with a particular focus on the police.
“They will observe police conduct from movement of election materials to voting centres, arrival at polling areas, accreditation and voting processes and announcement of poll results.
“To achieve our mandate on election security management, we have collaborated with key stakeholders such as the Police Service Commission (PSC), Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room, the Yar’adua Foundation-Case 2019, the Nigeria Police Force, accredited domestic and foreign observers, INEC and some development partners.”
Olugbuo urged members of the public to follow its updates, using its hashtag.
He urged the security agencies, particularly the police to play their responsibilities to ensure that the general elections were conducted in a peaceful atmosphere without any voter being disenfranchised.
He said that the ratings of the police would, to a large extent, be determined on how best they handled the 2019 general elections to ensure an atmosphere devoid of rancor of any sort.
