EU observers meet Lawan, submit report to Senate today, INEC gets fresh election verdict from U.S. institutes

The European Union Election Observer Mission ((EU EOM), will today, meet with Senate President Ahmad Lawan and officially present its report on the 2019 general elections to the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

The emergency meeting had been communicated in a letter signed by the leader of the delegation, Ketil Karlsen, wherein it had been agreed for the panel to meet with the Nigeria’s number three citizen at 12.30pm in Abuja to deliberate observed flaws with a view to conducting better elections in the future in consonance with the bloc’s practical solutions.

However, the former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, maintained that the EU document had given vent to the claim by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, that the votes were allegedly manipulated.

He, therefore, called for the immediate resignation, arrest and prosecution of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu.

The Bayelsa indigene praised his predecessor, Professor Attahiru Jega, for publicly admitting that the commission had a server and transmitted electronically results of the contested polls.

The observers, had in its final report, described this year’s governorship, federal and state assembly elections as highly flawed.

The EU Chief Observer, Maria Arena, had while unveiling the report in Abuja said: “The mission concluded that the systemic failings seen in the elections, and the relatively low levels of voter participation, show the need for a fundamental electoral reform.”

However, INEC has received the joint report of the International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI) on the polls.

NDI Associate for Africa, Chris Fomunyoh, and IRI Acting Regional Director for Africa Division, Elizabeth Lewis, presented the document to Yakubu in Abuja.

Speaking on behalf of the team, Fomunyoh stated that the findings and recommendations would help to strengthen Nigeria’s electoral process and promote democracy.

Yakubu, who lauded the auspiciousness of the report, pledged that the electoral body would implement aspects of the recommendations that require administrative action for the November 16,2019 Bayelsa and Kogi gubernatorial contests.

More so, the Good Governance Initiative (GGI) has sought the immediate resignation from office of the INEC boss.

The call was contained in a statement issued by president of the group, Nnosike Nwosu, in Abuja.

Also yesterday, the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) flayed the Federal Government for taking an exception to the EU document.

In a statement by its acting chairperson, Abiodun Bamigboye, and national secretary, Chinedu Bosah, it stated that with the ‘damning’ report, “we insist that the umpire or another agency for that matter has no moral authority to seek the deregistration of any political party under the flimsy excuse of winning no seat at local government, state and federal government level.”