INEC reviews election manual, commences security training for state officers

As part of preparations for credible 2019 General Elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with support of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), commenced the training of State Training officers of the Commission nationwide and the review of Manual for Election Officials in Abuja, today.

The review of the manual was to align its contents and ensure congruency with the newly approved guidelines for the conduct of 2019 general elections by the commission.

A statement by the Director Voter Education and Public Enlightenment, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi said the exercise is being carried out by a special committee with members drawn from the Operations, ICT, Voter Registry, Voter Education, ADR and Legal Services departments, chaired by the Administrative Secretary of the Electoral Institute, John Irem.

Speaking at the combined opening of the two events, the Chairman, Board of Electoral Institute (TEI), Prince Adedeji Solomon Soyebi represented by National Commissioner Dr Mohammed Mustafa Lecky said ‘’In line with the Commission’s Training Plan, the Training of Trainers (ToT) for State Training Officers (STOs) of INEC shall kick-start the 3-layer training on electoral security.
“This underscores the seriousness of this workshop, as successful implementation of the cascade training in the states and at the senatorial district levels is hinged on the outcome of this workshop.
‘’The importance of credible, free and fair elections in a democracy and its overall impact on governance and development cannot be over emphasized’’, he added.
Earlier in a welcome remark, the Acting Director-General of TEI, Sa’ad Umar Idris Ph D, urged the STOs ‘’to take up the challenge, to ensure that ultimately security personnel deployed for the 2019 General Elections in their respective states are well prepared through training for their responsibilities.
‘’I must reiterate that STOs have a huge responsibility ahead. But, with this comes the opportunity to prove to prove their worth. This 3-day workshop will no doubt hone the skills of participants to effectively coordinate, manage and cascade Election Security Personnel (ESP) Training in order to bring out the best and enhance high level spirit of professionalism in them for optimal performance’’, Dr Sa’ad said.
IFES Representative, Mr Seray Jah commended staff and Commission for overlooking the comfort of the festive season to converge for an onerous national assignment. He noted that INEC and staff were working harder to ensure the timely execution of all activities listed in the election calendar for the successful conduct the 2019 general elections.

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