Joseph Bakare
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), says it has confidence in the ability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct free, fair and credible general elections in 2019.
Mr Niyi Adebayo, APC acting National Chairman (South), stated this on Monday in Abuja when he received a 2019 election Exploratory Delegation of the European Union to Nigeria.
The delegation was led by Mr Nicolay Paus.
Adebayo, who said the APC was ready for the forthcoming elections, added that it was also confidence in the ability of the judiciary to resolve disputes that may arise from the process.
He thanked the European Union for their long standing interest and development support for Nigeria`s electioneering process.
Earlier, the EU delegation leader said that the team had met with other election stakeholders in Nigeria, including INEC, political parties and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Paus said the delegation had also met with the Civil Society Organisations and some international organisations working on electoral support.
He added that the meeting was to recommend whether the EU would deploy election observers to monitor the 2019 general elections.
“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,” Paus said.
He recalled that in 2015, the EU mission was in Nigeria ahead of the general elections and remained in the country weeks after the elections to monitor situation.
Paus added that the mission also had a number of long term observers who also followed the Nigerian electoral process.
According to him, 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.