The 2 days Training which commenced, Monday 16th October 2023 is organized by the Electoral Institute (TEI) with the objective that at the end of the training, participants should demonstrate the ability to organize and conduct training on Polling and Counting and effectively perform the electoral functions of SPOs in line with the Regulation and Guidelines for the conduct of Elections 2022.
The Hon. Resident Electoral Commissioner INEC Kogi State, Dr. Hale Gabriel Longpet in his Opening remarks urged the participants to take the training with very seriously and ensure effective step down at the training of Poll Officials as their performance at the Polling Unit depends on the quality of training they received.
He urged participants to also conduct themselves in a manner that would change the narrative of Kogi State hither to known to be violent prone during Elections.
The Director General TEI, Dr. Sa'ad Umar Idris in his welcome remarks advised participants be non partisan in the discharge of their duties.
He further charged participants to ask questions where necessary, highlighting the importance of training so as to ensure quality step down of the training for Presiding Officers (POs) and Assistant Presiding Officers (APOs), he further urged the participants to acquaint themselves with the technology driven initiatives introduced into the processes and procedures of Election Day activities.
The DG also stated in his speech that quality and effective training of Election personnel is a prerequisite to the conduct of free, fair, credible and Inclusive election. The DG, TEI was represented by Director, Research and Documentation, Prof. Ibrahim Sani.
The Director, Training Dr. Binta Kasim Mohammed in her goodwill message reiterated the importance of a quality step down of the training of Presiding officers and Assistant Presiding officers by the SPOs and expressed her hopes in the capacity of the participants to achieve this goal.
The Training will highlight among others; the technology driven initiatives introduced by the Commission into the Electoral process to ensure transparency and credibility of election such as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System device (BVAS) for accreditation of Voters and the use of the improved iREV (INEC Result viewing portal) in the Upload of Polling Unit Results (scanned form EC 8A) for Public View.
The SPOs will also be exposed to INEC e- School, INEC Training BOT and INEC Security Alert and Notification System (INEC-SANS) application designed to provide real time notification on threats and violence against INEC staff on Election duty or INEC Offices & facilities.
At the opening ceremony were the Administrative Secretary of INEC Kogi State Mallam Shehu Baba, HOD E- Operations department, Mr. Abdulwaheed Sani, TEI/HQ Trainers and Management Staff of the Electoral Institute.
