By Okechukwu Onuegbu
The Anambra State Coordinator, Women Situation Room Nigeria (WSRN), Hope Okoye, Friday, said they would deploy 30 women to observe elections across the 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Anambra State.
Okoye, who disclosed this at a capacity training for media practitioners on gender based reporting and Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) law, added that they would open Situation Room for the purpose of the election.
According to her, WSRN has trained observers that would help to feed in the situation room with electoral contents especially as it concerns women.
"We trained observes. We have toll lines. We will open a Situation Room where election contents will come in. 30 election observers will be sent to 21LGAs to monitor the situation and report back through toll lines. Anambra State is among ten States and FCT where WSRN is monitoring election in the State. We will look at it in gender perspective to see how it affects the genders," she noted.
Earlier, the resource person, Mrs Ify Unachukwu, urged the media to work with the WSRN and other civil society organisations (CSOs) to professionally fight for prevention of gender based violence in the country.
Unachukwu said it was important to work with the media in stopping GBV were because they set agenda to the people, aside their cardinal objectives to inform, educate and entertain.
"Media can set agenda by creating contents on radio, television or print. They can use different kinds of programmes, editorials, news and others to educate people and discourage gender based violence. The media should reshape the way people think, reason or view things. You should report ethically to avoid using your reports to kill," she added.