Tech to help tackle Nigeria vote violations

N-Alerts.png

N-ALERTS App. Photo by Nigeria Federal Ministry of Interior

from EMEKA OKONKWO in Abuja, Nigeria
Nigeria Bureau
ABUJA, (CAJ News) – BY launching a technology-driven alert system for reporting gender-based violence (SGBV), Nigeria is aiming to kill two birds with one stone this election season.

It is anticipated the system, N-Alerts, will enable the security cluster clamp down on perpetrators of SGBV and track instigators of electoral malpractices.

The Ministry of Women Affairs has unveiled the system at the headquarters of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the capital, Abuja.

NSCDC, a paramilitary institution, is one of the agencies bracing up for the February 23 presidential poll that has been preceded by violence, ethnic fallout and inter-party tensions.

There have been fears polls will resultantly be postponed.

Ahmed Abubakar Audi, NSCDC Commandant General, assured that relevant agencies would be up to the task during the polls.

“The security agencies are on the same page, well prepared and ready to frustrate the efforts of those planning to truncate the electoral process,” he declared.

The police force is the lead agency in election security but the scale of Nigeria’s elections warrantee backup by other agencies.

“We are going to be working together alongside other sister agencies. It will translate to positive outcomes,” Audi assured.

Besides choosing the president, Nigeria will elect members of the Senate and House of Representatives on February 25.

State governorship elections are set for March 11.

More than 93,5 million citizens are registered to cast their votes in the West African nation.

Africa’s most populous country (estimated at 219 million), Nigeria, has a history of violent polls.

This feeds on the general insecurity characterized by kidnappings, cultism and Islamist insurgency.

– CAJ News

 

scroll to top