CHUKWUEMEKE IWELUNMO
Rights Monitoring Group (RMG), a coalition of 45 civil society organisations, has concluded arrangements with two leading insurance companies to provide adequate insurance policy cover for all observers of the group during the forthcoming general elections.
The organisation plans to deploy 13,000 observers to monitor the poll.
The National Coordinator of the group, Mr. Olufemi Aduwo, said members would give a good account of themselves all through the period of the election.
RMG, along with 87 local and foreign other organisations and foreign missions, are accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to observe the general elections.
It will be recalled that the group started election monitoring in 2003, and it has also monitored elections beyond the shores of Nigeria.
Aduwo was a member of INEC delegation that observed the United States, Ghanaian and the United Kingdom general elections in 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively. He also served as a member of INEC Election Monitoring Board for Anambra State Governorship election in 2009.
He was appointed by the INEC chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, in 2011 to observe the collation of presidential election results.
While speaking on the preparation for the forthcoming election, Aduwo said “our mission during the exercise is to assess all aspects of the electoral processes, the constitutional and legal framework. Each observer would limit his observations during the election to his specific area of coverage in order to ensure that the reports the observers would be filing after the election would be detailed and faultless”.
He also appealed to other accredited observers to distinguish among complaints, rumours, accusations and facts.
“Only facts that they witnessed or verified on the field should be used as the basis of their reports. Our main objective as stakeholder in the electoral management should be how to entrench democracy through free and fair election and enhancement of public confidence in the electoral process, to detect fraud, to strengthen respect for human rights, and to contribute to the electoral resolution of conflict”, he said.
The activist, who is a returnee of World Bank/IMF Boards of Governors meetings expressed gratitude to the Centre on Convention for Democratic Integrity (CCDI) and World Bank Good Governance Programme for financial support and for extending a hand of fellowship to the group in the areas of re-training and rendering assistance to observe the election.
He appealed to the politicians to have confidence in the Prof. Jega-led INEC, saying “the Commission needs the cooperation of political parties and not condemnation by politicians”.
He stated that he believed that Jega would not compromise the integrity of the electoral process.
“As INEC chairman, Jega cannot rig any election when the results would be announced at polling units, the political parties must be able to have credible and discerning people as polling agents instead of miscreants” he charged.
He added that “the politicians who engage under-aged to vote must be prosecuted, the issue of child voters has become a recurring issue in the northern part of the country and all the political parties are beneficiary of this electoral fraud over the years. Nigeria’s potential for greatness is not in doubt and it is even more gratifying that we all as citizens agree that with the right efforts, the country can activate its potential”.
Rights Monitoring Group (RMG), a coalition of 45 civil society organisations, has concluded arrangements with two leading insurance companies to provide adequate insurance policy cover for all observers of the group during the forthcoming general elections.
The organisation plans to deploy 13,000 observers to monitor the poll.
The National Coordinator of the group, Mr. Olufemi Aduwo, said members would give a good account of themselves all through the period of the election.
RMG, along with 87 local and foreign other organisations and foreign missions, are accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to observe the general elections.
It will be recalled that the group started election monitoring in 2003, and it has also monitored elections beyond the shores of Nigeria.
Aduwo was a member of INEC delegation that observed the United States, Ghanaian and the United Kingdom general elections in 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively. He also served as a member of INEC Election Monitoring Board for Anambra State Governorship election in 2009.
He was appointed by the INEC chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, in 2011 to observe the collation of presidential election results.
While speaking on the preparation for the forthcoming election, Aduwo said “our mission during the exercise is to assess all aspects of the electoral processes, the constitutional and legal framework. Each observer would limit his observations during the election to his specific area of coverage in order to ensure that the reports the observers would be filing after the election would be detailed and faultless”.
He also appealed to other accredited observers to distinguish among complaints, rumours, accusations and facts.
“Only facts that they witnessed or verified on the field should be used as the basis of their reports. Our main objective as stakeholder in the electoral management should be how to entrench democracy through free and fair election and enhancement of public confidence in the electoral process, to detect fraud, to strengthen respect for human rights, and to contribute to the electoral resolution of conflict”, he said.
The activist, who is a returnee of World Bank/IMF Boards of Governors meetings expressed gratitude to the Centre on Convention for Democratic Integrity (CCDI) and World Bank Good Governance Programme for financial support and for extending a hand of fellowship to the group in the areas of re-training and rendering assistance to observe the election.
He appealed to the politicians to have confidence in the Prof. Jega-led INEC, saying “the Commission needs the cooperation of political parties and not condemnation by politicians”.
He stated that he believed that Jega would not compromise the integrity of the electoral process.
“As INEC chairman, Jega cannot rig any election when the results would be announced at polling units, the political parties must be able to have credible and discerning people as polling agents instead of miscreants” he charged.
He added that “the politicians who engage under-aged to vote must be prosecuted, the issue of child voters has become a recurring issue in the northern part of the country and all the political parties are beneficiary of this electoral fraud over the years. Nigeria’s potential for greatness is not in doubt and it is even more gratifying that we all as citizens agree that with the right efforts, the country can activate its potential”.
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