The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Iyorchia Ayu, has advised the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government against compromising the integrity of the 2023 general election, stressing that the major opposition party does not want to be short-changed again.
This is even as he called on the European Union to send a high-level and large-sized observer mission to Nigeria to observe and monitor the 2023 general election, given the country’s large population.
Ayu stated while receiving the European Union Election Exploratory Mission to Nigeria led by Mrs. Mette Bakken, at the PDP National Headquarters.
In a statement signed by, Special Adviser on Media and Communication to the PDP National Chairman, Simon Imobo-Tswam, Ayu said, “We are prepared as a party to do the needful as far as the 2023 general election is concerned. But we are worried about the tendency and capacity of the State to manipulate the critical technologies to our disadvantage. We need to pay close attention so that we are not short-changed again.
“There are security challenges in some states, I think six or so states. We hope the government will stamp out the insecurity there early enough for elections to be held there with transparent outcomes. We will no longer accept questionable harvests of votes from inaccessible areas.
In the past, those were areas where the ruling APC did what they love doing best: bringing votes that subverted the will of the people. Even though we are going to police our votes, it’s important that the EU sends a large number of observers ahead of the elections.”
He went on: “We need a large EU Observer Mission here. We don’t want token missions. This is because Nigeria is such a big country, with some states being bigger than some EU Member-States. And we need, among the observers, people with technical capacities too. Election-observation has shifted from manual to technology. You need to keep talking to government and critical stakeholders so that the APC does not subvert the democratic will.
“We appreciate the efforts of the EU and thank the Observer Missions for their continued interest in the democratisation process in Nigeria which is close to 25 years. We want the world to know that what is happening in Nigeria is democratic, transparent and credible.”
