Stakeholders on the 2023 general elections in Kwara State, on Wednesday, unanimously resolved that technology should be deployed to fight violence during the elections.
This was disclosed at a stakeholders’ engagement and launching of an e-platform called “Nextelection”, in Ilorin, the state capital.
According to them, technology could be used to report and track incidences of violence before, during and after the elections.
The app, codenamed “Next Election” is expected to track issues of vote buying, ballot box snatching, attacks on voters and security agencies among others.
Speaking at the event, Executive Director of Webfala digital skills for all initiative, Mrs Nafisat Bakare, of the civil society organization handling the programme, said the platform is targeted towards addressing electoral violence in Kwara state and Nigeria.
The initiative, themed, “Deploying technology and data to report and combat electoral violence”, is supported by LEAP Africa and funded by Ford and MacArthur foundations.
According to her, it is sad that despite the election being just about two months away, violence has been a recurrent feature in the electoral process.
“There is hardly any election season that we do not witness an escalation of violence either before, during and even after the elections.”
“As active participants in the digital space, we strongly believe that technology can be used to fight violence during election, hence the formation of the platform to track violence in Kwara state during next year’s polls.
She said the platform would provide real-time information on violence during election using technology and data to support violence monitoring and risk mitigation efforts.
While acknowledging the availability of laws to curb electoral violence in Nigeria, Bakare said that its implementation had not been encouraging.
She, however, appealed to political parties in Kwara state and across the country to desist from comments and actions that could instigate violence and cause unrest in any part of the country.
Also speaking, Technical Director, Mr Wale Bakare, said that reports from the platform after being fact-checked would be channelled to security operatives for immediate action.
“When we receive this report, we are not escalating it to the public, we’ll try to share it to the necessary authorities in charge of that violence; we have vote buying, kidnapping, we have issue of group clashes, destruction of properties, physical arm, psychological abuse or assault”.
In his remarks, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kwara State, Mallam Garba Attahiru Madami, said the online platform is crucial and similar to what INEC is doing to reduce violence come 2023.
Madami, who was represented by INEC HOD on Voters Education and Publicity, Adamu Musa, said they must not give politicians the opportunity to compromise the platform by ensuring it operates within the confines of the law.
