CODE sets up situation room to monitor elections, combat fake news

Connected Development (CODE),a Civil Society Organisation(CSO),on Friday set up its Situation Room to monitor the electoral process ,fact-check information to quell fake news, misinformation and disinformation ahead of the elections.

Chief Executive of CODE, Hamzat Lawal, said this in Abuja, while unveiling the situation room located at the Abuja Continental Hotel.

Lawal said that CODE, would deploy its electoral intelligence tool known as Uzabe to share live situation reports from all polling units across the country to ensure a credible and transparent election.

He said that CODE created a network of community-driven observers, 7000 of which were accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to give on-the-ground real-time report from the Local Government Area and polling unit.

“Because Uzabe is a democratic alliance we have also partnered with reputable media organisations to expand coverage and fact-check information to quell fake news, misinformation and disinformation likely to incite violence or significantly impact the elections.

“ Uzabe puts powers in the hands of the citizens , and as we know ,for democracy to be successful, citizens must become informed about issues that can improve their lives.

“With Uzabe, citizens have access to real-time situation reports and analysis on electoral processes across the polling units and this is powered by 20,000 election observers.

“These observers have volunteered their time and efforts in informing what becomes the outcome of the 2023 general election in the 36 States and the FCT. This qualifies Uzabe as a citizen-led movement,’’ he said

According to Lawal, in a truly democratic system, voters are the kings and are responsible for the creation of government, citizens’ duty goes beyond casting their ballot, but ensuring that they stick together, united in their values as they pick leaders who reflect their values.

He said that CODE was taking the observation process critically and would be guided by INEC’s guidelines around election as well as the 2022 Electoral Act.

Lawal said that CODE was partnering with security agencies to ensure that issues around violence that would be reported by their observers would be escalated and appropriate actions taken.

He advised Nigerians to remain peaceful, go out and cast their ballot knowing that their votes would and one vote could make a difference.

Mr Emmanuel Njoku CODE’s Director of Democracy and Governance, said that the observers would send in both structured and unstructured reports using Uzabe.

Njoku said that CODE’s platform has two lens, one is the structured report which would focus on the election procedures while the second would focus on unstructured report such as incidents and security reports which we would be published on Uzabe.

He said that the incidence categorisation on Uzabe, was expected to cover areas such as security issues, fake news, positive event, collation centre, ballot issues as well as voter inducement.