The Independent National Electoral Commission on Saturday accused the European Union Election Observation Mission of harbouring a hidden agenda.
The commission stated this in a four-page statement issued last night in Abuja on the damning report of the mission on the conduct of the April elections in the country.
It stated, “With the election tribunals deep into the process of reviewing and adjudicating on petitions on aspects of the 2007 general election, the loud interjection of the so-called European Union Observation Mission in the process, in the name of presenting its reports on the election, is nothing but a desperate effort to influence the election tribunals,” INEC said in a statement released in Abuja late on Friday.
In the statement signed by the chairman of INEC’s Information and Publicity Committee, Mr. Philip Umeadi, the commission attributed much of the EU Report to ‘second hand reports’ derived from other sources. It stated that those in the EU observation mission were not immuned from ‘selfish and partisan involvement’ in the election.
Raising questions about the alleged undisclosed interests and agenda which the Mr. Max Van den Berg-led EU Election Observation Mission appeared to be serving, Umeadi noted that a disclaimer on the front page of the report actually warned that the European Union had not endorsed the views therein.
Umeadi went further: “Everything about the EU Observer Mission report is awkward; the timing is faulty. The language of the report is inciting and unbecoming of an international observer mission and the overbearing disposition of the EU officials hawking the report is unacceptable.
“This same overbearing and insensitive disposition were put on by the same Max Van den Berg and his associates in the EU Observer Mission before the elections in April, when they demanded that INEC should hand over to them a comprehensive list of the voters’ register. The commission (INEC) had flatly refused to oblige them, informing them politely that the new voters’ register contains fingerprints and biometric data of over 60 million Nigerians and it would be unwise to provide a foreign body with such a comprehensive national database.
“The EU Observer Mission officials did not take kindly to this obvious reminder. It is instructive that INEC had consistently expressed concern and disapproval about the methods adopted by the EU Observer Mission and some other observers to the 2007 elections.”
“The EU Election Observer Mission has gone way beyond its mandate with its belligerent disposition and inciting report. Need we remind anybody that this is a sovereign state?” Umeadi queried.
Aug262007