By Hosea Parah, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission, has disclosed that the electoral umpire suffered no fewer than 50 attacks between 2019 to 2022.
The Chief Press Secretary Rotimi Oyekanmi made this disclosure in a virtual meeting organised by International Press Centre (IPC), with support from the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EUSDGN), for online skill-enhancing and capacity-building workshop for bloggers/online journalists on conflict-sensitive reporting in the build-up to the 2023 elections.
According to him, out of the 50 attacks suffered Imo State Commission offices had about 11 incidences.
“Between 2019 and last year (2022), we had 50 unprovoked attacks on our offices and we lost quite a number of staff. In 2020 we had 22 unprovoked attacks, in 2021 there were 12 attacks, in 2022 there were Eight attacks the attacks are spread from Osun, Ogun, Lagos, Ondo, Bayelsa, Abia, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Anambra Ebonyi, Kaduna, Taraba, and Borno states. Of all these states we had 11 attacks in Imo,” he said.
He disclosed that the election is barely about 39 days, stressing that the Commission relies on huge collaboration of the media to succeed.
Oyekanmi said, “There are 18 political parties fielding a total of 15,333 candidates for all the elections on offer and we are talking about 1,491 constituencies where elections will be conducted. We now have N93.4698m registered voters this voters are registered in a total of 176,846 polling units nationwide.”
He disclosed that INEC is not interested in the ethnic or religious backgrounds of registrants but strengthening democracy, “When you begin to introduce religion and ethnicity you put INEC staff in difficult situation. When you report fact it helps the commission but when you don’t report right it could endanger lives of our staff,” he added.
Also speaking, Dr Rukayatu Aliyu, Lecturer, Bayero University Kano, said the media has critical roles to play in ensuring peaceful electioneering process.
She said, “Campaigns are part of democratic process. The media has the responsibility of ensuring it is peaceful by reporting accurately by drawing the line by being professional. Don’t compromise professionalism.”
“Be factual, be the credible source, explain today’s news by making projection into the future through feature. Report with the believe that we have no other country with patriotism and the content should be peace oriented content, as well as avoid name calling,” Aliyu added.
On his part, Executive Director Centre for Information Technology and Development Yunusa Zakari, explained that it was imperative for journalists to know the difference between hate speech or sensitive contents in order to sieve it.
According to him, hate speech involves a situation where a group of people puts another group in disrepute, with intent to cause violence and erupting crisis.
He said, “Be careful with what politicians say, even when you have them on camera, they claim that they are being misquoted. We must distinguish between hate speech, dangerous speech and fake news with needed trainings.”
Also, Executive Director International Press Centre, Lanre Arogundade, urged for neutrality of media practitioners, adding that utmost caution should be maintained during election.
Arogundade who presented media code for election coverage, also noted the need for news men to check their health statuses.
He said, “If you receive threat in the cause of campaign report it, report to the police, it’s a basic safety tool. We should go out there and work the talk.”
On her part, Maureen Chigbo, President Guild of Corporate Online Publishers warned practitioners to be mindful of the situation of the country.
She said, “Don’t cook results, remember to do no harm so that at the end of the exercise we can have a society to be proud of.”