By Samuel Oyejola
The Executive Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy Center (PLAC), Clement Nwakwo said election observers who rejected the results of the just concluded Ekiti governorship election are not part of the credible observers that participated in the election last Saturday.
He explained that credible elections observers are more concerned about the process of the election rather than the result of the election.
Nwakwo stated this in Abuja on Wednesday at the summit organised by the Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democracy Studies and the European Parliament.
Recall that in the wake of the declaration of former governor of Ekiti state, Kayode Fayemi as the winner of the election by the Independent Electoral Commission INEC, a coalition of observer group and civil society organizations rejected the outcome of the governorship election.
According to a statement by the spokespersons, Comrade Haruna Farouk and Nze Adachi Okoro, they said the election did not reflect their findings.
“Other incidents that we recorded will be made open in our findings, which will definitely shock Nigerians and expose the conspiracy of INEC, security agents and the APC to keep the people of Ekiti from expressing their constitutional rights,” the group said.
But according to Nwankwo, “those who issued statements based on election result in Ekiti state were not credible election observers. Election result is not the main thing but the electoral process.”
While commending national election observers in the country for the level of improvement in the elections observation in the country over the years, he observed that election observers in the country have diversify into various areas of elections for better improvement of the electoral process.
He charged INEC to open up their situation room for observers stressing that allowing observers into their situation room would ensure more credibility of the polls.
“The process of elections results from polling units to the Situation Room in INEC should be open for observers,” He said.
The Special Assistant to the INEC Chairman, Professor Mohammed Kuna revealed that the Elections Project Plan for the 2019 general elections have been mapped out. He advised election observers to be familiar with electoral process, electoral law and all the rules of engagement during the elections.
He charged election observers to ensure and focus on the implementation of their recommendation by the electoral body to ensure the process enjoy improvement.
