National Peace Committee (NPC)

Mr Ruben Aguilera, Head of the Governance, Gender, Human Rights and Migration Service, EU delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, made this known at the inauguration of the official inauguration of the Election Security Information (ESI) Hub, on Wednesday in Abuja.

Aguilera said the election security information hub was part of the longstanding partnership and support that EU has provided to the NPC among other support since its establishment in 2015 to deliver on its mandate.

He said,“We are moving beyond moral and convening power.

“We are now talking about moving into evidence-based platforms that would allow us to track incidents and those behind those incidents in terms of electoral offenses.

“There can be no credible or inclusive elections without security and unfortunately, as we know, there are still persistent security challenges.

“There was some information in the spring before showing, for example, how there are still incidents in places like Anambra, where we are also going to have elections coming up soon.”

Aguilera explained that he had the pleasure to visit some security agencies and the electoral body colleagues in Anambra and they made mention of several local government areas where insecurity was a challenge for the delivery of the election.

He said there were areas controlled by bandit groups ad other armed groups that were interfering in the deployment of teams that would ensure hitch-free elections.

He added, “The Nigeria we dream of as the European Union and the Nigeria we support through NPC and  other many other engagements is a Nigeria free of conflict, a Nigeria  where people can express feelings and their ideas without having any fear persecution or being subject to violence .”

Aguilera said the ESI hub was another tool that EU was supporting towards tackling violence.

“We sincerely hope that this tool will not only gather information but it will also use that information for high-level engagements for discussions but also for action we do need to take that information seriously and when whenever there are cases of insecurity, we need to act on them,”he said.

According to the Chairman of NPC, retired Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, the hub was an initiative of The Kukah Centre, the Secretariat of the NPC, with support of the EU, under its Support for Democratic Governance in Nigeria,(EU-SDGN).

Abubakar, represented by the retired Gen. Martin Agwai, member ,NPC, said that the strength of any democracy rests on the credibility of its election, and the confidence of its citizens in the process.

He said, “While Nigerian democracy continues to deepen, its election cycle reveals persistent security challenges, gaps and coordination, intelligence sharing, and weak response systems that allow local tensions to escalate into broader conflict.

“The hub is a deliberate response to these challenges. It is a strategic platform designed to gather, analyse, and share information on security and its impact on elections.

“While tracking electoral offenses, Its process is simple, yet very profound, intended to transform early warning into coordinated, timely and local responses by critical stakeholders.”

Abubakar added that the hub reflected a critical evolution in Nigeria’s democratic architecture, turning commitment into coordination and pledge into practical action.

Also speaking, the Executive Director and Head of Secretariat of the NPC, Fr. Atta Barkindo, said that in spite of some remarkable progress made; elections still reflected deep vulnerabilities that threatened public trust.

Barkindo said the hub, was therefore, conceived as a direct response to the realities that Nigeria is facing.

The clergyman said, “The hub is a proactive mechanism to collect, analyse, share data on election-related security problems.

“But most importantly, in my opinion, the hub represents the commitment of NPC to move just from pledges on peace efforts to prevention and issues of accountability.

“The evidence collected will assist the Peace Committee in all its interventions and mediations.

“This is because since its creation in 2014, the Peace Committee has relied solely on expert analysts and even security consultants to provide analysis and analysis of the issues.

“However, with our gratitude to the EU, we have now secured a better platform with the hub to collect data, see this data, and verify this data, so that all NPC interventions are informed by evidence rather than sentiment.”

A representative of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),Mrs Helen Ajayi, Director, Planning and Monitoring Department, commended NPC and EU for the initiative, adding that it would support the work of the commission.(NAN)