Posted by From FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja on
Against the backdrop of the suspension of electoral aid to Nigeria by the United States of America (USA) over alleged rigging that characterised last April polls, National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu, has labeled the international monitors and observers as traitors and anti-democratic elements.
Against the backdrop of the suspension of electoral aid to Nigeria by the United States of America (USA) over alleged rigging that characterised last April polls, National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu, has labeled the international monitors and observers as traitors and anti-democratic elements.
Reacting to the US government's decision to suspend aid to Nigeria based on the reports of the international observers and monitors, the INEC boss stated that the reports of the monitors and observers did not reflect what actually transpired on the election days and described them as conspirators whose reports should not been taken seriously.
Professor Iwu, who spoke in Owerri, the Imo State capital at the closing of a two-day workshop for officials of the commission, lamented that the attitudes of the international observers and monitors after the elections gave them out as conspirators rather than true observers.
According to him, the position of the United States government was largely influenced by the foreign observers reports and emphasised that 'they are conspirators, they do not mean well for us".
The INEC boss, who also accused the monitors and observers of wrong doings during the elections, however, said he would not reveal their atrocities until later, 'when the truth would be revealed to all".
Said he: 'I also would not comment yet on the so-called foreign observers. When the truth is told, you will then know that they are foreign conspirators and we will be able to say what happened."
He added that the reports of the foreign observers were largely informed by the fact of what they expected to happen in Nigeria, but which did not happen. He pointed out that the observers had expected crisis of unimaginable proportion leading to the collapse of the country during the election and when that didn't happen, they became disappointed.
'The fact that we as a nation did not collapse as the so-called yellow revolution that happened elsewhere, some people were not happy with that. The fact that we did not go to the streets and start killing ourselves, our detractors are not happy with that. I will not comment on that until a later date when I have some report coming to us from those who actually observed the elections, and then they will be able to say what INEC did and what INEC did not do," he noted.
Iwu boasted that for eight years Nigeria has managed her post military political transition very successfully, a feat, according to him, most other countries that passed through dictatorships were not able to achieve. 'By the grace of God, we shall keep managing it for another four years from one regime to another," he said.