By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
The European Union delegation that arrived Nigeria last week to monitor next month’s general elections has said that it would deploy 90 observers across the country except the north-east states because of insecurity.
The delegation revealed this yesterday in Abuja when it visited the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd).
Leading the delegation, EU Chief Election Observer, Mr. Santiago Fisas, told Buhari that the first batch of 30 observers were presently in the country, adding that the second group would arrive Nigeria by February 7, while the last batch would arrive before the election.
The chief observer revealed that the coming election was very important to the EU even as it was important to Nigeria, adding that whatever happened in Nigeria would affect the whole of Africa and the European Union as well.
Addressing journalists after a closed door meeting with Buhari, Santiago said: “The European Election Mission is a big mission. It is a mission that started in November and will be in place till mid April.
“What happened on the Election Day is not only the problem; it is what happened during and within a space of time, how their marines were done, how the law has been complied with, the propaganda, activities of the media and any possible claims after the elections. That is our role and not just to follow up the days of election.
“This is a very big country with so many inhabitants, and so it is not possible to cover everything. I can’t tell you that we will cover all the wards either for this election or for any other election.”
Speaking on the reason why the mission will not visit the North-east, he said: “We can’t be in the North-east for security reasons. But we have people deployed very close to the North-east and we have contacts there, and so, we’ll try to get better information as much as we can have on the North-east. But the present situation does not allow us to go to the North-east.”
Also speaking on the meeting, Buhari, who described the EU observers as “experienced people who have been covering other countries’ elections,” also said: “They are qualified to come for this elections. And as you observed they cannot cover all the 120,000 polling units, but they will place people in strategic places to advise them.”