{"id":3006,"date":"2022-11-25T14:38:44","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T14:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=3006"},"modified":"2022-11-25T14:38:49","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T14:38:49","slug":"inec-security-agencies-ipac-and-civil-society-discuss-preparations-ahead-of-2023-general-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/inec-security-agencies-ipac-and-civil-society-discuss-preparations-ahead-of-2023-general-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"INEC, Security Agencies, IPAC and Civil Society Discuss Preparations Ahead of 2023 General Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), representatives of security agencies, civil society organisations, and the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) came together to discuss preparations for the 2023 general elections at a National Stakeholders\u2019 Forum on Elections that held on Wednesday, 23<sup>rd<\/sup> November 2022, in Abuja. The Forum, themed \u201cRole of Stakeholders in Ensuring Free, Fair Peaceful and credible Elections\u201d was organised by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room with support from the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In her welcome remarks, Situation Room\nConvener, Ene Obi, noted that the interventions of Situation Room and its\npartner organisations have contributed to the improvement of the electoral\nprocess, holding stakeholders accountable and enlightening citizens. She\nstated that the Situation Room Credibility Threshold Document for the 2023\nGeneral Elections, which was launched in December 2021, would be the\nbasis by which the platform will analyse the elections.&nbsp;She expressed concern over the\nfact that\nNigeria\u2019s &nbsp;2023 general elections will take\nplace in the context of a grave security crisis.&nbsp;Obi reiterated\nSituation Room\u2019s commitment to continue to work towards the improvement of\nNigeria\u2019s elections, to ensure that the process is free, fair and reflects the\nchoice of citizens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>INEC Chairman,\nProf. Mahmood Yakubu who spoke about the Commission\u2019s readiness for the\nelections, stated that INEC is engaging with institutions with capacity to\ntrack funds and vote buying such as the Economic and Financial Crimes\nCommission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related\nOffences Commission (ICPC), which have now become members of the Inter-agency\nConsultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).&nbsp;He\nstated that INEC is determined to address issues of campaign finance and will mobilise every\nnational institution with responsibility for tracking and combating illicit\nflow of funds, as well as broadcast and print media regulatory agencies, to confront the\nproblem. He further stated that the Commission will release the timelines and\nprocedure for the collection of Permanent Voter\u2019s Cards (PVCs) in due course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Representatives of\nthe Nigeria Police at the Stakeholders\u2019 Forum, DCP Moorkwap Donghai and ACP\nOnaghise Osayande provided some insight into the preparations of the Police for\nthe elections. According to them, the primary purpose of the Police in elections is to\nprovide election security, which is the protection of all election personnel,\nvoters and election materials within the pre-election, election and\npost-election periods.&nbsp;They noted that Police personnel on election duty\nare expected to be at alert, approachable, conversant with the electoral law; professional in\ntheir conduct, possess proper identification, work in partnership with other\nstakeholders and refrain from using force.&nbsp;They further\nstated that the Inspector General of Police has mandated that all Police\npersonnel know what is expected of them in terms of election duty as stipulated\nin the Code of Conduct and Rules of Engagement for Security Personnel on Election Duty, 2020.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The representative\nof the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) noted that the nonchalant\nattitude of security agents at polling locations to offences such as vote\nbuying, as observed in the 2022 Osun governorship election, is a challenge that\nshould be addressed by collective efforts. People should be able to speak up\nwhen they notice any anomalies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other stakeholders\ncontributed to the conversation by making recommendations to improve the\nelectoral process. Ene\nObi assured that Situation Room will continue to work towards improving\nNigeria\u2019s elections, in order to ensure that the process is free, fair and\nreflects the choice of citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), representatives of security agencies, civil society organisations, and the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) came together to discuss preparations for the 2023 general elections at a National Stakeholders\u2019 Forum on Elections that held on Wednesday, 23rd November 2022, in Abuja. The Forum, themed \u201cRole of Stakeholders in Ensuring Free, Fair [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3013,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions\/3013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}