A Non-Governmental, NGO, Cleen Foundation, has commended the conduct of INEC officials and that of security personnel deployed for Saturday’s governorship election in Anambra.
Mrs. Ruth Olofin, its Executive Director, told newsmen in Awka on Sunday that the NGO monitored the conduct of security operatives at the election in collaboration with the Police Service Commission and a media outfit, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report.
She said the NGO deployed its mobile application called the Cleen Mobile App which allows accredited observers to report security issues from their respective posts.
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“Our 21-man Election Security Support Centre tracked, documented, escalated and followed up on security-related issues across local government areas during the election.
“There was adequacy of security personnel at all polling units. The minimum number of security officials seen in polling units was one, while we also recorded up to 16 security officials in polling units in some hotspots.
“We also observed that 88.2 per cent of the security personnel were wearing easily identifiable nametags and this is commendable. However, we observed that 11.8 per cent were not wearing easily identifiable nametags.
“We observed that 64.7 per cent of polling units were protected by unarmed security personnel. There were reports, however, of firearm possession by security personnel on patrol.
“The statistics generated indicated that 47 per cent of security personnel arrived at polling units before 9 a.m., while 53 per cent arrived after 9 a.m.
“This is below average and we urge security agencies to improve on timeliness in terms of arrival in subsequent elections,’’ Olofin said.
“INEC’s technical teams responded to some of the technical challenges as they arose, which is laudable,’’ she added.
Olofin said that other information related to election security were tracked and verified through credible media sources and social media platforms of credible partners.
She said that there was a general calm across the state and an improvement in voters’ turn out at the election.
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She said also that there were challenges with logistics and deployment of voting materials in some parts of the state.
Olofin also told journalists that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices deployed by INEC malfunctioned in some polling units.
