The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has decided to intensify voter education at the grassroots as part of efforts to discourage vote-buying and hawking during the 2019 elections.
Prof. James Apam, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, for Kogi State, made this known in Lokoja on Thursday at the opening of a one-day capacity building workshop for officers in charge of voter education in the North Central Zone.
The workshop brought together all INEC officers in charge of voter education in all the states and local governments in the zone.
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Mr Apam said that vote-buying and hawking was gaining ground largely due to ignorance among voters, saying that voter education remained a potent tool to discourage the practice.
According to him, the INEC has put in place seamless electoral process that will ensure the success of the 2019 elections.
He charged the participants, mostly the INEC Desk Officers in charge of voter education to brace up for the challenges ahead as the bulk of educating the voters in their respective areas of coverage would fall on them.
Ahmed Biambo, Director, Voter Education and Publicity of INEC in the state, told the participants that the commission was determined to take voter education to the door steps of Nigerians.
Mr Biambo said that INEC was optimistic that the issues of vote-buying and hawking would be reduced to the minimum through massive voter education enlightenment.
Participants at the workshop were drawn from the Federal Capital Territory, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Nasarawa, Plateau and Benue States.
NAN
