Group to monitor campaign finances in Ondo election

A non-governmental organization, Justice, Development, and Peace Makers’ Centre (JDPMC), Osogbo, has expressed readiness to track campaign finances of political parties as voters countdown to the 2024 Ondo gubernatorial election.

The NGO disclosed that the move is to ensure integrity in the electoral process and expose the usage of state resources for personal ambition.

To achieve this, JDPMC has trained and deployed 16 campaign finance trackers with three investigative journalists across the 18 local government areas of the state to track the campaign finance expenditure of the major political parties and the use of state administrative resources by the ruling political party.

Speaking after the two-day training organised by the centre under the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) Phase II, the project manager, Festus Ojewumi, said there is a need to strengthen democracy in Nigeria.

According to him, a level playing field for all political party contestants irrespective of their political affiliations during the state governorship election would be achieved with the project.

He said: “Experience has shown a high level of non-compliance with the Electoral Act by the political parties and candidates, especially in the area of campaign finance regulation and the use of state administrative resources by the incumbent, which usually gives birth to poor governance, hence, the training.”

Ojewumi said the trained personnel have been well-equipped to track various political campaign events like mega rallies, door-to-door campaigns, and ward meetings.

“The trained trackers shall also track political campaign materials like billboards, and banners among others with the use of parallel expense tracking methodology,” he added.

Ojewumi assured the general public of well-articulated and verified reports both before and after the 2024 Ondo Governorship Election as the trackers were well-equipped with advanced technological tools such as a mobile application known as Just-Watcher to track the campaign finance process including other data quality assurance (DQA) methodologies.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) scheduled the election for Saturday, November 16, 2024.