Emmanuel Awari-Jalingo
The Initiative for Community and Human Development (ICHD), a non-governmental organization has expressed hope that the upcoming governorship and state houses of assembly election would be violence free in Taraba state.
Mr Yahuza Ahmed Magaji, the Executive Director made the conviction on Wednesday while briefing journalists in Jalingo, he noted that the implementation of the Election Violence Mitigation and Monitoring (EVMM) project in Taraba State made the presidential election the most peaceful election in history of Taraba state.
Yahuza disclosed that ICHD was already carrying out the same strategies used that saw the just concluded presidential election in the state violence-free by sensitizing people on the need for a peaceful election.
“In order to achieve a violence-free governorship election as witnessed during and after the presidential election, we are exploring the same strategies we used before the presidential election. We are currently running a radio jingle in both English and Hausa Languages to constantly remind citizens of their roles and responsibilities in ensuring a peaceful election.
“We have secured funding from the International Republican Institute (IRI) through Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI) with support from National Endowment for Democracy (NED), to implement a project titled: Election Violence Mitigation and Monitoring (EVMM) in Taraba state.
“This is in response to the report of the long-term monitors on the pre-election environment in some selected states of the Federation including Taraba State. The report indicated that Taraba State is one of the States with high incidences of tension and politically motivated violence in the build-up to the electioneering campaign period.
“The project aims to increase the capacity of state-based Nigerian civil society to use data-driven approaches to identify vulnerabilities to electoral violence, monitor and report on incidents of violence and deliver targeted counter-violence messaging to mitigate electoral violence for the 2023 general elections most especially before during and after the general election
“We are pleased to say that the Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state were relatively peaceful, and to us, it can be described as the most violent free general election ever in the history of the state.
“The activities of the Project, Election Violence Mitigation and Monitoring (EVMM) are believed to be one of the leading factors that influence the stabilization of the election environment that resulted in a violence-free atmosphere where citizens exercised their civic responsibility without intimidation or fear of attack by thugs or political underdogs.
“It is our hope that the upcoming gubernatorial and state assembly elections in the state will also be conducted in a violent free environment considering our relentless efforts to achieve the desired result,” he expressed.
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