Wike Faults EU Report On Election

The European Union (EU) report about the 2023 elections has been faulted by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike.

Wike reacted to the report on Monday in Abuja when the EU Ambassador to Nigeria, Samuela Isopi visited him. 

The EU through its chief observer, Barry Andres had in June, presented its report about the elections and gave six areas to work on including ensuring the real-time publication and access to election results.

But in his reaction, the minister noted that the EU was supposed to serve as an impartial observer during the polls and not to present an inaccurate report of the nation’s electoral democracy.

He stated that the laws of Nigeria cannot be the same as those of the EU because of the peculiarities of both environments.

“I didn’t agree with the European Union over the last report on the election in Nigeria. They are to observe, that Nigerian laws can’t be the same as EU laws because they have different environments.

“In Rivers state, the EU report was different from what transpired there. How can people who believe in democracy and practice it, be portrayed as people who don’t understand democracy?

“Our concern should be how to make the economy grow better, we have to cooperate and agree on specific areas of development in the Federal Capital Territory and the entire country.

“Foreign partners should be concerned with strategic development irrespective of the areas”, he counseled.

The EU Ambassador to Nigeria, Samuela Isopi, stated in her speech that the election report was created by a group of impartial observers and had nothing to do with her operations.

Nevertheless, she vowed that the Union would keep up its efforts to collaborate with the Minister to further development both within and outside of the territory.