BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – The All Progressives Congress (APC), has told the European Union delegation to Nigeria that it is prepared and ready for scheduled 2019 general elections.
The Acting National Chairman of the Party, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, stated the position of the Party when he received in audience the 2019 election exploratory delegation of the European Union to Nigeria on Monday at the APC National Secretariat, Abuja.
Adebayo, who was accompanied during the meeting by the APC National Treasurer, Alhaji Adamu Fanda and Chief of Staff to the National Chairman, Abasi Braimah, commended the European Union for their longstanding interest and developmental support for the country’s electioneering process.
Adebayo, who is the APC Deputy National Chairman (South), expressed confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ability to conduct free, fair and credible elections and the judiciary to resolve disputes that may arise for the election process.
Earlier, Team Leader of the EU delegation, Nicolay Paus, said the team has already met with other election stakeholders in the country to recommend whether the EU would deploy election observers to monitor the 2019 general elections.
Paus said; “We have met with a range of electoral stakeholders – INEC, some political parties, ministries of Foreign Affairs and Information, civil society and some of the international organisations working on electoral support.
“The purpose is really to collect as much information as possible to recommend whether to deploy an observer mission for the 2019 elections. This decision will be taken in Brussels.
“As you may remember in 2015, there was a mission here which arrived around six weeks before the elections and stayed some weeks after the elections. We also had a number of long-term observers who followed the electoral process as well.”
Other members of the delegation were the Head of Politics, EU Delegation in Nigeria, Olivier Huot; Policy Officer, Jose-Antonio Torres-Lacasa; Election analyst, Hannah Roberts and Political Adviser, Osaro Odemwingie.
