AHEAD of next month’s governorship election in Ekiti State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has moved to map out areas prone to electoral violence in the state.
The Commission revealed during a training workshop for some field agents in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday.
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INEC also said it would deploy Election Violence Mitigation and Advocacy (EVMAT) tool for the election.
Speaking at the event, INEC national commissioner Abdu Zuru said the EVMAT would identify and map possible areas of electoral violence before, during and after elections to enable the Commission to implement preventive measures for the exercise.
He further warned that the electoral umpire would not condone any form of violence in the election.
“There seems to be an erroneous notion in the Nigerian political space that violence is a helpful route to winning elections,” he said.
“This seems to be the typical mindset of many political players in our clime, and so they often times make preparations for elections as if it is preparation for war.
”INEC as an election management body finds this totally unacceptable and refuses to be dragged along this primordial line of thinking, hence, all efforts of the commission are geared towards making election a thing of joy where winners and losers celebrate together.”
The Director-General of the Electoral Institute Sa’ad Umar Ideis added that the training was designed to equip the field agents with requisite skills to effectively engage in the EVMAT exercise.
He reiterated that the mapping would enable the Commission to make adequate security provisions for the election.
According to him, the effectiveness of the EVMAT tool was demonstrated in the last Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections, as well as the Edo, Ondo and Anambra governorship polls.
The Ekiti State governorship election is scheduled for June 18.
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