On Thursday, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), a non-governmental organization, announced it will deploy 325 citizen observers in preparation for the Kogi Governorship elections scheduled for November, 21st.
On Thursday, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), a non-governmental organization, announced it will deploy 325 citizen observers in preparation for the Kogi Governorship elections scheduled for November, 21st.
It will be recalled that SaharaReporters reported on the mass deployment of police officers by the Inspector General of Police in preparation for the Kogi elections.
The TMG is a coalition of 400 civil society groups spread throughout all 36 states of the Federation of Nigeria.
According to the Chairman of TMG, Ibrahim Zikirullahi, 300 of the observers will be stationary while the other 25 will be mobile. Speaking to the press in Lakoja city, Mr. Zikirullahi explained that TMG recruited the observers from the 21 Local Government Councils across the State.
The Chairman explained that TMG’s primary purpose during the Kogi election will be to provide timely and accurate information about the voting process via their Parallel Vote Tabulation tool Quick Count.
Mr. Zikirullahi claimed that Quick Count, “is the only observation methodology that can independently verify the official results of the governorship election as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC).”
The Chairman also stressed the impartiality of TMG stating that “if the official results reflect the ballots cast at polling units, TMG will confirm them,” alternatively “if the official results do not reflect the ballots cast at polling units, TMG will expose them.”