Date: 2016-12-16

The North Central Zone of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday in Ilorin commenced the training of 200 staff members on the use of ICT in the conduct of elections.

Prof. Anthonia Okoosi-Simbine, INEC's National Commissioner for the North Central Zone, said the training was to ensure that the staff members were ICT compliant.

The Commissioner, who was represented by the Acting Administrative Secretary, Dr Darga Abubakar, said the training would focus on the effective utilisation of ICT in the conduct of free and fair elections in the state.

Abubakar said the commission itself has critical roles to perform in the continual enthronement of democracy by ensuring that the votes of the people counted.

He said the commission seeks to continually train and refresh the knowledge of its staff on the use of technology.

"Technology plays a key role in the world over, and the introduction of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and Smart Card readers in our electoral system shows that these technologies have come to stay. "So, we intend to continue to improve on that," he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 200 participants at the training constitute 56 per cent of the INEC staff population in the state. The five-day training which started on Dec. 15 will end on Dec. 20. (NAN)