By Precious Werner Ahiakwo
A non-governmental organization, The Community Initiative for Enhanced Peace and Development says it has trained over two hundred indigents across the twenty-three local government areas in the state, as peace monitors in Election related conflict incidents Reporting.
Executive Director of The Community Initiative for Enhanced Peace and Development Egondu Esinwoke-Ogbalor shortly after training indigents from (8) Local Government Areas of Eleme, Ikwerre, PHALGA, OBALGA, ALAGA, AKULGA, ONELGA and Tai, in Port Harcourt, said the project which is in partnership with the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), has launched a situation room with a focus of reducing electoral violence.
She said the situation room will track incidences of electoral violence which will be escalated to the appropriate authorities for mitigation.
“The emphasis of this training is to equip some indigents with skills to identify potential signs or indicators that can trigger electoral violence. The trained Observers will be non partisan and only say what’s happening around them before and after the elections.”
“The main emphasis of the theme of the training “Collaborative Violence Prevention and Mitigation in Rivers State Election” is on non-violence election in Rivers State, reducing destruction of lives and properties before, during, and after gubernatorial election in Rivers State to the barest minimum,” She said.
The Executive Director of The Community Initiative for Enhanced Peace and Development Egondu Esinwoke-Ogbalor, said the CIEPD and PIND also jointly held a multi-stakeholders forum to bring together critical stakeholders to make commitments towards the steps they will take to ensure peaceful elections in their respective Constituencies.
“” The Project Goal of the election violence mitigation intervention is to sensitize the electorate, especially the youth and the general public on the need for peace through constructive engagements ahead of the 2023 general elections, especially in the selected eight (8) Local Government Areas of Eleme, Ikwerre, PHALGA, OBALGA, ALAGA, AKULGA, ONELGA and Tai in Rivers State. In furtherance to the pursuit of the above goal, the project brought the State Houses of Assembly candidates together to a peace accord signing event to secure their commitment to non-violence elections in Rivers State which is a panacea for free and fair elections”, she said.
Our correspondent reports that the forum was attended by CSOs, Security Agencies (Military, Police & Civil Defense).
Some of the participants at the training told our correspondent that they are happy to be part of the event, as they have been exposed to special reportorial skills. They said the training has afforded them to be able to identify violence and how to mitigate it before it escalates.