Electoral Act: INEC set to revise code of conduct, training manuals ahead of 2023 — Yakubu

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has said that the Commission is set to revise the code of conduct and training manuals to align them with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

He said this will go a long way in deepening the capacity of the security personnel to imbibe and comply with global standard of election security management.

The chairman stated this in his remarks at a workshop on the Election Security Management Training organised by the Nigeria Police Force in Abuja on Thursday.

He said the commission, under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), has produced and periodically revised the code of conduct and rules of engagement for security personnel on electoral duty.

He added that this would consolidate on the professionalism displayed by the security agencies in the recent off-cycle elections.

Assuring that the commission will continue to work in synergy with security agencies to ensure a safe and secure environment for the 2023 general election, the chairman stressed: “We will also intensify our cascade training for security personnel ahead of the 2023 general election”.

He noted: “It is a critical election and we must all continue to work together to protect the will of the Nigerian people”.

Yakubu commended the IGP, Usman Baba Alkali, for the initiative, saying: “With about seven months to the next General Election, this is time for proactive measures to ensure that the entire country is secure for election to hold nationwide”.

The chairman who described workshop as laudable, also pledged the commission’s support declaring that INEC will fully participate in the training workshops nationwide.

He went on to give an insight into preparations for the next year’s general elections.

“Election preparations, deployment and implementation constitute the most extensive mobilization that could happen in a country, whether in peacetime or in wartime. In Nigeria, it involves the recruitment and training of staff and managing the logistics for their deployment to 176,846 Polling Units spread across 8,809 electoral Wards, 774 Local Areas and 37 States of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). It also involves a projected voter population of about 95 million for the 2023 General Election which is over 20 million more than the combined voter population of the other 14 countries in West Africa”.

The workshop on security management would be extended to the six geo-political zones of the country on dates yet to be announced.