By Amuda Dan Sulaiman Fab
Some Nigerians in their hundreds under the aegis of Coalition of Civil Society Organization and Political Parties for Good Governance (CCSOPPGG), Thursday, stormed the European Union Offfice, Abuja to protest against its report on the 2023 presidential election.
The angry Nigerians also warned the European Union not ignite war in the country through its “biased” report on the victory of President Bola Tinubu.
The protesters who were seen with several placard carrying different inscriptions, matched through the Central Area to the European Union’s headquarters in the Federal Capital Territory.
The EU had earlier in its report criticized the 2023 general elections stating, violence, killing and vote buying as some of the factors for it’s criticism.
Addressing some officials of the EU who received the protesters, leader of the group, Dr. Lillian Ene Ogbole, accused the leadership of EU of deliberate attemp to slide the leaders and government of Nigeria, adding that every election comes with peculiar problems and Nigeria is not an inception.
According to Dr. Ogmore, how on earth can just less than fifty people from the European Union come to Nigeria to observe an election where you have over 176000 polling units and then they go to less than 1000 polling units of election centres and they draw conclusions?
She said: “As you can see, we are here with thousands of patriotic Nigerians who have come specifically to raise concern about the presentation and the reports of the European Union concerning the just concluded elections.
“We have come to register unequivocally that we are not satisfied with the report of the European Union as a matter of fact, we are of the opinion that the report is not just ridiculous but a deliberate act to slides the Nigerian entity and of course by implications our leaders and the government of Nigeria. We are all Nigerians here. We were all here during the just concluded election.
“I would like to say to you very clearly that there is no where election in the world that is devoid of crisis and hitches. Every election in the world both in the United States of America, in the great Britain both in Ireland and even the European Union countries.
“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, what we found not worthy is the manner in which the report was made.
“The election that just concluded in Nigeria that produced one of the man alive today in the person of his excellency, distinguished Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu was one of the most transparent election in the history of Nigeria. We were taking back When the report came, the media was wash with the report of the European Union carefully and specifically saying that the election was fraudulent; that the election felt short of requirements of every credible election in the world. I don’t know where that one is coming from. If it is the 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 the election held;, if it is the same election that the European Union spoke about, what we read then it means that something is fishy somewhere.”
Ogbole question why the EU had to take its reports to the Election Petitions Tribunal?
“You would also agree with me that 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. If the European Union is beginning to address our election and of course whatever is daring the way they have presented this report then we are scared. We are scared not just going to affect Nigeria as a country but is going to affect the whole of the African countries in the country.
“We understand the role they played but again there comes a time where we have to stop. They should know where to stop and they should know where to continue. Why on earth should they take the report of this election to the tribunal. Is there a report should be recieved? There are procedures and they have procedures in their counties, when they come to Nigeria, they act out of protocol. They must begin to have protocols, they must begin to respect our rule of law, they must begin to respect our Nigerian People.”
Ogbole told the EU officials that Nigerians were not forced to vote Tinubu but were convinced with his track records and capacity.
“We are saying enough is enough. We have a President that is doing very well, we have a president that have started on a right footing, we have the president that is doing what several presidents in Nigeria have not been able to do. All that we need at this point is to support him. He is our Son, and we are his children, he is our leader and we willingly voted for him.
“No man, no woman, no country compel us to vote for him. It is our right to vote for him. It is our right to vote for the candidate of our choice and that was what exactly what we exhibited in the last election. Our election we all witness was free to an extent which was almost 100 percent free.
“It was election that was devoid of some many things we use to witness in the past. Our democracy is growing to an accelerated rate and we must warn the international community to take cognisance of that. We want to let them know that never again! Never again!! Never!!!”
