Alliances For Africa Charges Security Operatives, Civil Societies To Protect Vulnerable Persons During Election

Ikenna Orioha… 

Security operatives and civil society groups have been charged to ensure that vulnerable persons are protected during and after the November 11, 2023 guber election in Imo State.

This charge was made by Rejoice Wobilor-Agwa, facilitator of a One-Day Round Table Discussion with The Inter-Agency Consultative Committee On Election and Security (ICCES) held in Owerri weekend organized by Alliances for Africa, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre with support by MacArthur Foundation.

She observed that the programme was aimed at forming synergy with the security outfits such as police, Civil Defense, NDLEA including civil society groups to man the 2023 guber election in Imo State by taking actionable steps.

Wobilor-Agwa added that the program promotes transparency, accountability in governance through fair and democratic election, saying the seminar urges government and security chiefs to do well to deploy security operatives to polling units to ensure adequate security and protection of voters, as well as secure election materials.

Alliances for Africa also advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that election materials arrive on time to polling booths to enable early voting, insisting that no eligible voter should be disenfranchised.

Adding that the NGO in three (3) years has been in the vanguard of calling for fair, free and peaceful conduct of elections in the country, one of the seminar facilitator, Adaeze Ekpunobi, affirmed that the objective of the programme was to “promote a safe environment that will support the active participation of vulnerable groups in the November 11, 2023 gubernatorial electoral process in Imo state, to improve the management and coordinate the design of a comprehensive election security management system, to generate actionable outcomes that address security concerns and promote a fair and transparent election process, in line with the Citizens Charter of Demand”.