As people of Sokoto prepared for the forthcoming local government elections in the state, the Sokoto State Independent Electoral Commission has vowed to conduct credible elections in the state.
The Commissioner in charge of operations in the commission, Abubakar Haliru Dange, disclosed this on Thursday while making his presentation during the two-day State2State quarterly conflict mitigation and prevention dialogue in Sokoto.
The program which was supported by the USAID Nigeria-State Accountability, Transparency, and Effectiveness (State2State) Activity, was aimed at discussing issues that can cause conflict and how best to handle such matters.
The Commissioner said the commission is building on the success recorded in the last local government election in 2021 which he said was adjudged to be the best in the country.
He said the commission in its effort to ensure credible polls, held a series of meetings with all the registered 18 political parties after which they all agreed with September 21 date for the polls with no fewer than 15 political parties registering their interest in the polls.
He said the electoral body is not ready to make use of card readers in the polls, “we are not making any use of card reader in the election and I can assure the people of the state that we will do everything within our power to ensure credible election is conducted.
“We all know that one day we will account for all our deeds in life to our creator and that is why we have decided to ensure we do justice and ensure the election is credible and acceptable to all.
“The elections is taking place in 3,991 polling units in across the state and we are working on distributing the non sensitive materials on Thursday while the sensitive materials will be distributed on Friday, a day before polls”
Speaking earlier on the objectives of the meeting, a member of staff of State2State who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with newsmen said is to asses the preparedness of the States Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) in ensuring peaceful and non-violent conduct of the 2024 local government election polls.
“Deliberate on the role of women, youths, and other marginalised groups and their involvement in the peaceful and non-violent electoral processes in the state as well as encourage them to participate in the polls” he added.
Participants for the two-day program were drawn from representatives of the state electoral body, civil society organisations, human rights, people living with disability, media amongst others.
ALSO READ THESE TOP STORIES FROM TheWitness
