The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has revealed that it has concluded arrangements to deploy 250 observers for the March 28 presidential election.
ECOWAS president, Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo, who led a five-man delegation on a visit to the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate,
General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) in his office in Abuja yesterday, disclosed this, adding that it is of great importance that the regional bloc observe elections in the country for the peace and stability of the region.
“We have decided to deploy an observer team of 250 persons to Nigeria and we have decided to deploy a long-term observation mission. They were deployed from January 20 to the geopolitical zones of Nigeria. They came back on February 9 after the postponement of the election but we had debriefing session with them.
“So, they made their observations and recommendations and we have decided to engage all the stakeholders to exchange views and to share their findings and their observations.
“ECOWAS is going to bring its supports to peaceful and stable elections in Nigeria because peace and stability are essential for development and we know that peace and security in Nigeria is so important for the rest of our community. So we are all engaged in this process and we all wish this electoral process would be successful,” he said.
For his part, General Buhari assured the delegation that his party would do everything possible to achieve peaceful elections.
According to him, his party supporters had been advised, even before the commencement of campaigns and the signing of Abuja Accord on non-violent elections, to show restraint even in the face of provocation.
He added that though the elections were postponed, President Goodluck Jonathan had assured the country he would hand over power to the winner on May 29, adding that INEC had also shown an appreciable level of preparedness for the rescheduled elections.
“Mr. President has made very encouraging commitments or comments that that he will hand over and swear in whoever wins the elections.
“On our part, even before the Abuja accord which Kofi Annan presided over, we read several statements to our supporters that we do not expect our supporters to be rude, not even to take up arms against anybody. We said that several times even before that accord.
“Of course, after the accord, we continued to ask our supporters to show restraint under any provocation and we have successfully toured 35 out of the 36 states. We have also conducted town hall meetings. So, be rest assured that we are extremely concerned about the system and we are going to do our best to make sure that elections hold and hold peacefully,” Buhari said.
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