A renowned legal practitioner and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana SAN, has cautioned against hasty implementation of reports on the 2019 general elections by foreign observers, saying that reports of domestic observers from Nigeria are more relevant than those of foreign observers.
Falana in a statement accessed by National Dailyobserved that the 2019 general elections in Nigeria, took place between February and March 2019. The elections, he said, were monitored by local observers and supervised by foreign observers. Falana decried that the reports of the local observers on the elections have been ignored by the federal government and other stakeholders.
He lamented that, “however, the report of the former colonial master and her allies in the European Union (EU) is being celebrated by all the stakeholders, including the mass media.”
Falana noted that after launching the report in Abuja, the foreign election observers are currently presenting copies to the Presidency, National Assembly, INEC, APC, PDP etc; adding, “even many people who have not read the report of the foreigners election are praising it and advising the federal government to adopt it in toto!”
Falana was of the view that before the report of the ex-colonial masters on how to conduct credible elections in Nigeria, the neo-colonial federal government must be compelled to implement the recommendations of the Justice Mohammed Uwais Panel, Ahmed Lemu Panel and Ken Nnamani Panel on electoral reforms. Falana maintained that “the recommendations and the reports of the local election monitors are much more relevant than the report of the foreign observers.
Falana advocated that meanwhile, since the federal government has refused to set up the electoral offences tribunal recommended by the Uwais Panel, the INEC and the police should arraign in court the godfathers who sabotaged internal democracy in some of the parties and the armed thugs who committed other grave electoral offences during the last general elections.