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Eighty-two women are contesting for various elective posts in Kwara in the forthcoming polls.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Administrative Secretary in Kwara, Mr Martins Boris Chiroma said this on Friday in Ilorin.

He spoke at a Town Hall meeting with Women Groups and Gender Focus Civil Society Organisations.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the town hall meeting was organised by International Women Communication Center (IWCC) in collaboration with INEC.

According to the Administrative Secretary, a total of 528 candidates are jostling for 34 positions in the state.

He said out of 35 candidates contesting for the governorship post, only two are women, and out of the 57 Senatorial candidates, seven are female.

On the House of Representatives list, out of 83 candidates, only 10 are female, he said.

Chiroma said out of 353 House of Assembly candidates, only 63 are female.

The Administrative Secretary expressed concern over the low level of participation of women in politics in the state.

With this statistics, you will all agree with me that our womenfolk will have to buckle up, Chiroma said.

According to him, the town hall was to give an up-date of the Commissions state of preparedness towards the 2019 elections and the need for women to actively participate.

It is important at this juncture to re-assure this august gathering and through you to the generality of Kwarans that the Commission is set to conduct free and credible elections, the Administrative Secretary said.

Chiroma told the women that a total of 1,130, 266 PVCs have been collected by their owners, remaining 277, 134 to be collected.

The Executive Director, IWCC, Dr Limota Goroso Giwa, in her paper: Women participation and the 2019 General Election: Rationale and Challenges said the challenge of women in the state is fear of unknown.

The challenge we have in Kwara State towards this 2019 general election is the fear of unknown.

We are also afraid of thuggery, hooliganism, vote buying, vote apathy, insecurity of life and property and inability to vote for political candidates of your choice, Goroso said.

She appealed to women as mothers and wives to advice their children and husbands against any act of thuggery and violence during the elections.

Goroso added that IWCC was committed to peaceful elections in the country.

We recognise the fact that violence against women during elections is a threat to the integrity of the electoral process.

It can affect womens participation as voters and as candidates seeking for elective positions, the IWCC boss said.

Another resource person, Hajia Salmat-Iyabode Muhammad appealed to women to vote according to their conscience.

Presenting her paper titled:Issues and priorities for the 2019 General Elections, Muhammad said women should vote for candidates of their choice without intimidation.

Muhammad, a lawyer and chairperson of Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA), also advised women to look at the manifesto of political parties to know the best party to vote for.

She also advised women to look at the antecedent of candidates before voting for them.

Credit: Pulse News

No fewer than 112 women are among the candidates to contest the 32 seats in the Oyo State House of Assembly election come 2019, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Investigation conducted by NAN in Ibadan on Monday revealed that 511 males will join their female contestants from various respective political parties to contest the state Assembly seats.

A total of 49 political parties fielded candidates for the assembly seats.

Mr Mutiu Agboke, the Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC) in the state, told NAN that the final list of the candidates for the State Assembly and governorship election would be published on Jan 31,2019.

This is in line with Section 34 of the Electoral Activities 2010 (as amended),“he said.

Agboke urged all the candidates and leaders of the respective political parties to prevail on their party members/supporters to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

He disclosed that the State had 2,954,720 registered voters, ”but 927,225 PVCs uncollected are still in the custody of INEC.

”The commission has just received another batch of 103,737 PVCs for voters that sought transfer, replacement of lost and defaced PVCs.”

He urged those concerned to visit INEC offices where they registered for collection but stressed that there would be no collection of PVCs by proxy.

The REC promised not to leave any stone unturned in improving the electoral proceedings for a successful polls in 2019.

 

Credit: Pulse News

The move is coming in a project tagged “CrossCheck Nigeria’’, a collaborative information verification initiative powered by First Draft, a United Kingdom organisation fighting misinformation globally.

CrossCheck Nigeria, due to be launched on Wednesday, will be coordinated by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), an independent and non-profit news agency in the country.

To this end, a two-day boot camp (training programme) opened in Lagos on Monday for about 46 journalists drawn from the participating media organisations.

Addressing participants at the opening session, the Executive Director of First Draft, Dr Claire Wardle, said the project was aimed at improving the quality of information available to the voting public.

Wardle added that CrossCheck Nigeria would also help to debunk misinformation and fake news and sanitise the media space in the run-up to the elections.

She explained that the boot camp was designed to teach the participants about the new verification technology to be deployed for the project, and how to work in the media coalition.

According to her, the project will help the public to understand not only what to trust, but also why.

In his address of welcome, the Executive Director of ICIR, Mr Dayo Aiyetan, expressed concern about the “weaponisation of information either to deceive the public or injure the reputation of opponents’’.

Aiyetan stated that recent local elections in the country had shown that “the social media, including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, have become avenues for politicians to spread misinformation, rumour, falsehood and fake news.

He noted that the media had a responsibility to verify information being churned out on social media to ensure that they were true.

Journalists need to learn the skills to verify and fact-check such misinformation and debunk them before they mislead people or cause harm,” he stated.

The ICIR boss explained that under the project, the participating organisations would work together in disproving fake news or misinformation for greater impact on members of the public.

The participating organisations are NAN, The Guardian, Punch, Daily Trust, The Sun, Tribune, Thisday and The Nation.

Others are Freedom Radio, Premium Times, The Cable, Sahara Reporters, ICIR and Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Source: Pulse News

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that two other women have also been cleared by INEC to run for the position of deputy governor.

The women cleared to run for governor are: Lami Musa of People’s Party of Nigeria (PPN), Na’ama Bulama of Progressive People Alliance (PPA), Rukayya Audu of Action People’s Party (APP) and Elizabeth Isa of Change Advocacy Party (CAP).

Those cleared to run for the position of deputy governor are: Hadiza Mohammedof Democratic Alternative (DA) and Rashida Balarabe of Movement for the Restoration and Defence of Democracy (MRDD).

Other candidates for the governorship seat are incumbent Gov. Muhammed Bindow of All progressives Congress (APC) and former Adamawa Assembly Speaker and acting Governor, Umaru Fintiri who is Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer.

Others are serving Senator of Adamawa Central Senatorial District who defected from APC to African Democratic Congress (ADC), Abdul-Azeez Nyako is the candidate of ADC, while former House of Representatives member for Gombi/Hong federal constituency is the candidate of Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Bappare Umaru, an Islamic Cleric who is the Imam of Jamaatul Nasril Islam (JNI) Friday Mosque in Jimeta area of Yola town, is the candidate of KOWA party and a Christian cleric, Rev. Eric Theman is the candidate of MRDD.

NAN reports that this is the highest number of governorship candidates ever recorded in Adamawa since inception of democracy, a development many say is a positive one and a pointer that people are becoming more interested in participating in politics.

Credit: NAN, Pulse News