Ugo Nosiri, Owerri
A Civil Society Organisation, YIAGA Africa, wants security agencies involved in the conduct of the November 11 off-cycle election in Imo State, to ensure the protection of voters’ rights during and after the poll.
The group’s Director of Programmes, Miss Cynthia Mbamalu, gave the charge during a Media-Civil Society parley held in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
She identified six local government areas with worrisome security concerns in the state, noting that the meeting was to discuss the pre-election environment and explore opportunities to promote a transparent process.
Miss Mbamalu said YIAGA Africa would deploy over three hundred observers across the twenty seven local government areas of the state to monitor the election as part of efforts to support democracy in the country.
According to her, Oru East, Oru West, Orsu, Orlu, Okigwe and Ehime Mbano local government areas, are high risk areas which security agents need to deploy intelligence-driven policing to enable the electorate to exercise their franchise.
She explained that the Group would deploy a technology-driven mechanism which has been proven to be effective in observing elections in countries across the world adding that the trained personnel would monitor the entire process.
Miss Mbamalu stated that the Independent National Electoral Commission had trained personnel that would work during the election but appealed to the commission to ensure that only those that went through the process were engaged to conduct the exercise.
