The Election Observation Mission (EU EOM), on Monday, ruled out the possibility of monitoring the forthcoming general election in the North-East due to insecurity in the region.
The Chief Election Observer for EU, Mr Santiago Ayxela, said this in Abuja, during a courtesy visit to the APC presidential candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari.
According to him, the mission will deploy 90 observers to monitor the election across the country, except the North-East region.
He added that the first batch of 30 observers had arrived in the country, while the second batch would be in Nigeria by February 7 and final batch, before the elections.
“We can’t be in the North-East for security reasons, but we have people deployed very close to the North-East and we have contacts there and so, we will try to get better information as much as we can have on the region.
“The present situation does not allow us to go to the North-East,” Ayxela said.
Ayxela further said the planned election was important to Nigeria and the EU, stressing that whatever happened to Nigeria would affect the whole of Africa and the EU.
He said the mission would monitor the process and conduct of stakeholders to ensure compliance with relevant laws, not only on the day of the elections but before and after the polls.
Reacting to questions on how the 90 observers would effectively monitor the 120,000 polling units, Ayxela said, ‘it is not possible to cover everything.
“I can’t tell you that we will cover all the wards either for this election or for any other election, Nigeria is a very big country with so many inhabitants.”
He, however, expressed optimism that the delegation would meet President Goodluck Jonathan, who is the PDP presidential candidate in the February14 election.
Reacting, Buhari commended the EU for its activities in ensuring that it monitors the election process.
Also, during a visit to the national leadership of PDP, in Abuja, on Monday, Ambassador Ayxela said the mission had been in the country since mid-November monitoring political activities, including the just-concluded parties primaries and other events leading to the general election.
The mission chief noted that members of his team were rich in quality and assured that they would not interfere in the conduct of the election.
“I will give you an example: it is like a football match, we are not the referee, we are just spectators,” he said.
In his remark, PDP national secretary, Professor Wale Oladipo, said the party would not go back on the peace accord despite the recent attacks on its campaign train by suspected supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC.)
“On the Abuja Accord PDP stands. Only yesterday, there was a meeting of national peace committee that was set up by eminent Nigerians and the party attended the meeting and we resolved that the Abuja Accord is good for this country, it is good for our future, for our economy, for our image and our well-being,” he said.
On the attacks on PDP campaign vehicles in Suleja, Niger State, at the weekend, he condemned the incident but restated that the party could continue to observe the spirit of the peace accord.
