2023 Polls: Group storm EU office, demand withdrawal of election report

A group under the aegis of Coalition of Civil Society Organisations and Political Parties for Good Governance on Thursday, staged a protest to express their dissatisfaction over the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) final report on Nigeria’s 2023 general election.

The group outrightly rejected the report, marched to the European Union Office in Abuja, displaying placards with inscriptions such as “Don’t ignite war in Nigeria, we have confidence in our democracy, we love our country” among others.

CAPITAL POST reported that the EU EOM Chief Observer, Barry Andrews, at a press conference last week in Abuja, presented the final report of the 2023 general election, where he faulted the process and recommended further legal and operational reforms to enhance transparency, inclusiveness and accountability for future elections.

But speaking on behalf of the group, Dr. Lilian Ene Ogbole said the outburst by the International Observer was a deliberate attempt to spite Nigeria and her leaders, adding that their pronouncement was capable of igniting crisis and promoting disunity among Nigerians.

She said, “The report of the European Union is enough to trigger a national problem, is enough to trigger a national chaos, our security is at stake, our sovereignty is at stake, our unity is at stake.

“Nigeria is a great country in Africa, the most populated country in west Africa and the pride of the African countries. With the way the European Union presented this report on our election, we are scared. We are scared not just as a country but it is going to affect the whole of the African.

“We are striving to grow but we cannot grow in the speed that we want to with the kind of report we are getting from the European Union”.

Dr Ogbole said though Nigeria, like any other country, experienced some sort of challenges during the polls, it recorded one of the most transparent elections in its history.

Dr Ogbole however called on the EU to withdraw the report and give detailed and true account of what transpired during the elections.

“There is no election in the world that is devoid of crisis and hitches. Every election both in the United States of America, in Great Britain, in Ireland and even the European Union Countries.Every election comes with their peculiar problems. Nigeria is not an exception.

“Yes, we are aware that the world is a global village therefore, people from different parts of the world converge in various countries during elections to monitor, observe and make presentations like the EU has done. But what we found unnecessary and not worthy is the manner in which the report was made.

“The just concluded election in Nigeria that produced his excellency, distinguished Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu was one of the most transparent election in the history of Nigeria. We were taking aback when the report came, the media was awash with the report of the European Union carefully and specifically saying that the election was fraudulent, that the election fell short of requirements of every credible election in the world.
I don’t know where that one is coming from.

“If it is the same election that we were all part of, that we all fought vigorously with our lives and everything we have as patriots and well meaning Nigerians to ensure that it held, is the same election that the European Union spoke about, that means something is fishy somewhere.

“How on earth can just less than fifty people from the European Union come to Nigeria to observe an election where you have over 176,000 polling units and then they go to less than 1,000 polling units of election centres and they draw conclusions.

“We are here to register our grievances, we are here to tell them that as of matter of urgency, withdraw their report and come up with a report that will be favourable to Nigeria.

“We will not condone any false report henceforth, we will not condone any manipulated result against our country. It has happened in the past what we are seeing is neo-colonialism in disguise and we would not allow that,” she added.