Chairman of the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC), Babatunde Osibodu, has said that the roles of electoral officers are very crucial to the success of local council elections, saying that there is need for them to be adequately trained to enable them to familiarise themselves with the electoral process.

He stated this during a training session organised for electoral and assistant electoral officers in Abeokuta.

The OGSIEC chairman, while noting that the training was significant and necessary for the success of the elections, said that the officers would be exposed to both the theoretical and practical aspects of the training manual.

Osibodu, who was represented at the event by one of the commissioners, Tunji Akoni, reiterated the importance of electoral officers to the forthcoming elections and urged them to desist from any form of bribery, intimidation and manipulations from political parties.

Besides, he said that training of returning officers and other ad-hoc staff would be held in the coming week across the three senatorial districts of the state.

The Deputy Corp Commander, Amos Ajayi, while presenting a paper on the theme: “Electoral Security and Peace” at the training, stressed that crowd management, voter’s conflict resolutions, as well as violence and emotional intelligence, are fundamental in dealing with different stakeholders on the day of elections.

Also, in his remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the Commission, Olabode Ojetola, appreciated the resource personnel for their immense contributions and the fundamental roles of the trainees during and after the electoral process.

Meanwhile, the training attendees said that the training had broadened their knowledge in the aspects of collation, announcements and declarations of results within the confines of the law, including relating with voters and other stakeholders on election day.