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Group urges political parties to strengthen internal democracy

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By Gabriel Atumeyi, Abuja

A civil society group, Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) has advised political parties to pay more attention to strengthening their internal party democracy.

The group, which made this known at a stakeholders roundtable in Abuja, presented copies of its final report on the 2019 general elections with focus on key high points of the just concluded elections and came up with recommendations for the upcoming elections, especially those of Kogi and Bayelsa which will happen on the 16th of November this year.

Acting Executive Director of the CTA, Faith Nwadishi said: “We engaged political parties and encouraged them to look at their internal democracies, and be able to set for themselves rules that they can abide by.

“Post elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has returned over 80 Certificate of Return and more than 90% of those certificates were returned because of the shoddy party primaries that were held.

“We need political parties to continue to have conversations, maybe have an institute where they could be trained on how to select who their flag bearers would be.

“It is also important that they clean up their data base. We want to know who belongs where. Streamline your members and know who they are. What we observed on elections day is that we see somebody wearing a particular party tag (supposedly a party agent), but working against that same party.

“In India for instance, they have over 3,000 political parties. Not every political party should field a candidate at the national level; if your stronghold is in a particular ward or local government, then you should be seen in that local government. Parties should be seen in their areas of strength, ideologies, and programmes.”

“For us at CTA we issued our report in April and we commended the

Electoral Umpire in areas where they have done very well.

“For instance, looking at the entire electoral cycle starting from Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) till the day of the election, we saw that there were challenges that INEC itself had to overcome and still delivered the election in the way they delivered the election.

“We had issues with the interference by the security. We also had very serious concerns about the political class and the role that they play in the election. In our opinion, we feel that the political class being the overall beneficiary of an electoral process, should actually be the one at the forefront of making our elections better.

The chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye said: “There are lessons that we have already learnt from the 2019 general elections. Those lessons have been warehoused and we also going to key in those

lessons with the Kogi and Bayelsa elections. We also going to begin the distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) the moment we are through with the review of the 2019 general elections.

“You know that Kogi and Bayelsa have had history of electoral violence; based on that we are going to begin to talk to the key stakeholders in the electoral process in these two states.

“We are also going to speak with religious leaders, traditional rulers, members of labour movements, students’ movements, and all key stakeholders to make sure that at the end of the day we have a good election.

“We’ve had very good interactions with the security agencies, and they have assured us that we are going to have a new framework and engagement process that will ensure that every person who has been registered to vote goes to the polling unit to vote in an atmosphere of tranquility without any violence whatsoever.

“We are looking at all the recommendations; and those ones with administrative flavours, we are going to implement them and have a good election in Kogi and Bayelsa states.”

Security agencies like the Nigerian Army, Navy, Police, NSCDC, FRSC, and the US Embassy pledged their commitment and continuous support to enhancing the electoral process with all it is tasked to do within the ambit of the law. Issues deliberated on at the event includes – security, internal political party democracy, citizen’s participation and vote trading, electoral violence, the role of judiciary, and the role of INEC.

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Board Sanctions 118 Immigration, Civil Defence Officers

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The Board of NSCDC, Fire Service, Correctional, and Immigration Service, has approved the sanction of 118 personnel for various offences.

The Board Chairman, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, made this known at the end of their meeting on Thursday in Abuja.

Tunji-Ojo, who is also the Minister of Interior, told newsmen through the board Secretary, Alhaji Ahmed Ja’afaru, that the erring officers were punished after facing disciplinary panels  for various offences.

“These offences range from misconduct, negligence of duty and outright absence from duty posts.

“In the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCOs), there were 48 cases of offences, in the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), there were 21 cases.

“Also, in the Federal Fire Service (FFS) there were 12 cases while in the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), there were 37 cases,“the minister said.

Tunji-Ojo added that the board has reviewed and approved new guidelines for appointments, promotions, discipline and general purpose in the services.

He said that the board also considered and approved the timeline for the conduct of the 2024 promotion exercise in the four services.

“The board considered and approved the review timeline for the conduct of the 2023/2024 fire service recruitment.

“As for the ongoing recruitment in the fire service, we hope to publish the names of the successful applicants latest by June 15. That is where we are for now.

“We also want to use this medium to warn the general public to ignore whatever they have been seeing or hearing in the social media space as they did not emanate from the board.

“This is because, we have come to realise that the social media world had been awashed with fake news telling applicants to come for screening exercise or pay certain amount of money.

“Let me put it emphatically that the board is not asking anyone to pay money for recruitment.“

He urged applicants to be patient, saying successful candidates will be notified to come for further screening through their emails and mobile lines. (NAN)

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NSCDC Inaugurates Female Strike Force to Secure FCT Schools

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The FCT Commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mr Olusola Odumosu, has inaugurated the corps Female Strike Force to protect schools in the territory.

A statement by the command’s Public Relations Officer, Samuel Idoko, on Thursday in Abuja, said the inauguration followed the completion of a three day training for the personnel.

Odumosu said that the primary responsibility of the strike force was to ensure the safety of all schools in the territory.

He said that the training had equipped them with the needed skills and capabilities to carry out their duties.

According to him, the training is a follow up to the recent meeting of all FSF Unit Commanders with the Commandant General, Ahmed Audi.

Audi had charged them to be up and doing in view of the reported cases of kidnapping in some parts of the country.

“The training is imperative to ensure compliance with the CG’s directive on the mandate of securing schools for the safety of students and staff.

“Cases of abduction in schools must come to an end, that is the primary purpose of this training.

“We need to restore the confidence of the people in our ability to secure schools in the FCT,” the commandant said.

He therefore called on schools in the FCT to register with the National Safe School Response Coordination Centre, so that they could be added to the ecosystem.

Odumosu explained that the registration was free and meant to ensure better coordination and make responses to emergencies more quicker and efficient.

Odumosu assured that the training and retraining of the personnel would be held regularly to ensure prompt response to any security threat.

“We must make schools safe haven once again for children,” he added.

He charged the female strike force to conduct routine patrol and surveillance of schools to prevent threats and attacks.

He also enjoined the strike force to hold periodic security awareness and enlightenment talks for student and teachers.

Odumosu also directed the operatives to abide by the corps’ Standard Operational Procedure in discharging their duties and avoid over zealousness in the use of force or fire arms.(NAN)

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Tinubu Appoints Bello as new Chairman of CCB

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President Bola Tinubu has appointed Dr Abdullahi Usman Bello as the new Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), pending confirmation by the Nigerian Senate.

This is contained in a statement by Chief Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, on Thursday in Abuja.

Ngelale said that Bello was a consummate professional with more than 25 years of work experience in consulting, banking, law enforcement, financial services and academia.

He said that the President anticipated the new Chairman would lead the Bureau with utmost integrity toward the realization of its mandate of maintaining high standards of public morality in the conduct of government business.

Ngelale said Tinubu expected the new appointee to ensure that the actions and behaviour of public officers conform to the highest standards of morality and accountability.(NAN)

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