Group to deploy 562 observers on election day in Osun
By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo
As the governorship poll in Osun State draws nearer, an election monitoring group, Yiaga Africa has deployed 32 long term observers across the 30 local government areas of the state for pre-election monitoring.
The observers, according to Yiaga Africa who ended their training Thursday will track and report on all activities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), National Orientation Agency (NOA) and security agencies.
Speaking at a Watch The Vote (WTV) programme, a media roundtable discussion for media representatives in Osogbo, Programme Manager (election), Mr. Paul James said that the long term observers would also report on how women, youth and Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) as well as political parties were being engaged in the electoral process.
James further said they would also track and report early warning signs for electoral violence.
The programme manager said for the election day, the organisation would deploy 562 observers in pairs to a representative random sample of 250 polling units in every local government.
He said: “A total number of 500 polling unit observers will be deployed to observe the accreditation, voting and counting process on election day. WTV will also have 32 mobile (roving) observers present in all the 30 LGAs. They will use their mobile phones to send coded text messages of observation reports to Yiaga Africa WTV Data centre in Osogbo.”
He added that for additional oversight, 30 personnel will be deployed to observe the result collation process at LGA collation centres and one observer to observe at the state results collation centre.
Also speaking, a board member for Yiaga Africa, Ezenwa Nwagwu stressed that what is in the pipeline is a comprehensive observation of the electoral process which includes the pre-election environment, election day and post-election.
He however added that Yiaga Africa has been involved in election observation since 2007 and it is one of the leading organizations working on elections in Nigeria.
