Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has announced that the accreditation granted to election observers for the Edo and Ondo governorship elections is not guaranteed and can be revoked at any time.
Speaking at a training session for election observers on Wednesday, the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Election and Party Monitoring Committee, Sam Olumekun, emphasised that any observer group violating the Code of Conduct for observers, as outlined in the Guidelines for Election Observation on the INEC website, will have its accreditation withdrawn.
He also reminded them that the commission does not provide any funding for observers accreditation
Olumekun said the commission was concerned about the issue of integrity in Election observation, saying, While there are quite a number of trustworthy and credible observer groups in the Country, there are still others who have continued to display laxity about election observation and have cared less about the integrity of the entire process.
He said the training is to enable accredited observer groups, to be well acquainted with the online processes of uploading field observers, the functionality of BVAS, codes of conduct of election observation, Election Day processes and procedures as well as other operations, innovations and preparations of the Commission towards the forthcoming elections.