Ahead of November 11, 2023 governorship election in Kogi State, the Nigerian Women Trust Fund has charged women in the state to come out enmass on election day to exercise their civic duty of electing the candidate of their choice.
The programme coordinator Nigerian Women Trust Fund , Veneza Gregory gave the charged on Wednesday during a 3-day training of trainers on continuous voter education held in Lokoja in collaboration with INEC and funded by the European Union.
According to her , the training of 20 participants all women became necessary to enable them cascade the knowledge to other 50 women at each of the 21 local government areas that would further educate the rural women on the date of election, where the polling units are located and other vital information that would prepare them adequately for the election.
She stated that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has also put in their guideline, priority vote for pregnant women , nursing mother and the People With Disability, urging women in Kogi state to take the advantage of the guideline to exercise their franchise once they arrive at the polling units.
“The purpose of the train the trainers on continuous voter education in Kogi state is to train 20 women on continuous voter education including knowing your rights , election violence among other modules that has been created specially by the Nigerian Women Yrust Fund.
“After the training each of the participant is expected to further cascade the information and knowledge acquired here today to another 50 women with the hope that it will curb electoral malpractices and also enable minority groups such as women to allow them understand their rights better in the electoral process so that they can go out and cast their votes in the forthcoming off-season governorship election in Kogi state” she explained.
In his lecture on voter education Mr Bukar Maikwada of the INEC hinted that in a democratic setting the power of electing leaders lies in the hands of the citizens and therefore urged women who are yet to collect their Permanent Voters Card to do so before November 11, 2023 slated for the governorship election in Kogi state.
He charged the participants to take the information and knowledge gained during the training to the grassroots to correct some anomalies in elections such as high rate of invalid votes among others.