INEC Election Ballot Box

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has set up an Election Analysis Centre (EAC) to identify and counter fake news during the forthcoming general election.

CDD Executive Director, Ms Idayat Hassan, who disclosed this during the official launch of the Election Analysis Centre in Abuja said it would also provide rigorous analysis on the election.

Hassan said EAC would be a one-stop shop where a team of reputable analysts would provide accurate and real-time analysis of events in the build-up to the poll.

She added that it would also provide information on Election Days and during post-election period in a more captivating, enriching and systematic manner.

“A separate fake news unit will be created as part of the EAC to hunt down disinformation that will trigger fear and violence during the election.

“It will provide informed analysis grounded in historical facts and data spanning 1999-2015 general election inclusive of off-cycle poll.

“A team of six fact-checkers will man the unit joined by a top disinformation expert Dan Arnaudo from Washington DC-based National Democratic Institute.

“Together, the team will spot, investigate and counter fake news during the election,”she said

Hassan said as tens of millions of voters head to more than 100,000 polling units starting from Saturday, CDD would deploy 3500 observers across the 8809 political wards of the country.

She said the observers would use a specially designed GPS-enabled CDD Election Tracker that would enable accredited field observers to report on the accreditation.

She said this would be complemented by SMS technology and CDD would also work on vote tallying and verification at the loose collation phase of the election.

She said the centre has carefully selected its team of analysts adding that the EAC would be led by former electoral commissioner Prof. Adele Jinadu, and Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim, CDD’s former director and senior fellow.

Hassan listed others as Prof. Nuhu Yaqub, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja, political commentator and associate prof. of political science and Dr Jideofo Adibe.

Others are election expert Dr Kari Muhammad; and Dr Joe Abah, former head of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms.

Also speaking, Mr Philip Baker Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria said the country was supporting democracy in Nigeria and was glad with the signing of peace accord by presidential candidates.

Baker said it was a huge step for Nigeria’s democracy and stressed the need for peaceful poll.

He thanked CDD for its one- stop-shop to bring efficiency to the electoral process by countering fake news which had been of concern to credible election.

“ We are pleased to be supporting this process, the notion of the centre to counter fake news is great, this will help Nigerians to hear accurate news during the election and afterwards,’’ he said.