Search for Common Ground (SEARCH), an International NGO working on conflict transformation, has trained 21 local governments observers on incident reporting on electoral violence in Kogi toward the Nov. 16 Governorship Election.
The Project Coordinator of SEARCH in the state, Mrs Gift Omoniwa, disclosed this at the end of the training, Friday in Okene.
She said that the exercise was conducted using the Partnership for Niger Delta (PIND) SMS database platform.
Omoniwa said that the two-day training was aimed at building capacity of early warning observers to report community-based conflict early warning, prevention and mitigation activities, particularly in potential hotspots before, during and after the election.
She said that the incidences to be reported by the observers would be shared with identified stakeholders and responders for immediate actions in the off-cycle Governorship election in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the observers were taken through presentations and brainstorming sessions on overview of elections, identification of election violence triggers and early warning signs.
Other highlights of the training include mapping of electoral violence hotspots and geographical locations at risk of election violence, simulation on reporting to the PIND SMS based database platform.
The training also considered identification of critical election incidents and tracking of trending hate speech on campaigns and elections in Kogi.
