… organises 3 days induction course for electoral officers

In preparation for the conduct of the Local government election in Ondo state and to ensure free and fair poll, the state Independent Electoral Commission, ODIEC, yesterday commenced a 3-day induction course for the local government electoral officers.

It would be recalled that sometime last year the state government inaugurated the electoral officers, who were selected from all the 18 local government areas of the state.

The ODIEC Chairman, Professor  Yomi Dinakin said  the purpose of the induction course is to acquaint the electoral officers with the global best practices of organising local government election.

Odinakin who stated that election is a sine qua non to democracy, stressed the need for ODIEC officers to be abreast of the minimum standards to follow in conducting election as electoral umpires, hence, the need for the training programme.

Asked when the LG elections will be conducted, the ODIEC boss said:  ” when we complete these series of training and induction; the commission is an independent body, it will then dictate its own time table as to when convenient to conduct the election, it requires a lot of preparation”.

He therefore enjoined the participants to focus and and acquire more  knowledge from the induction course in order to perform the duty expected of them during the election.

“You have been called to a very sensitive position to represent ODIEC at the grassroots, everything must be put in place to encourage you to do the work and remind you of the responsibility you are saddled with , you are all sufficiently knowledgeable and qualified , therefore, learn and interact with the resource persons”. He said.

Earlier, the State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Deaconess Lola Fagbemi while declaring the programme open had said that the local government election would be conducted before the year runs out.

She charged the participants to make use of the opportunity to prepare very well for the task ahead of them in order to sustain democracy in the state through a free and fair elections.

” The task of conducting local government election is a arduous one, and our democracy needs to be strengthened, our officers need to know how to do it in order to achieve a desired result. At the end of this induction they would be fully equipped for the great task before them.

” Akeredolu-led government is committed to conduct a free and fair local government election before the end of this year”. She noted.

Topics to be treated during the three day event include, ” The Electoral Officer as an Unbiased Umpire, Security awareness and liasing with security operatives for hitch free elections, the Impact of Social Media and the Press on the electoral process”, among others.