The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has assured that President Muhammadu Buhari will not interfere in the work of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the 2019 general elections.
Amaechi, who is also director general of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, stated this when he received a delegation from the European Union (EU) and ECOWAS, at his office in Abuja, yesterday.
It also emerged that the European Union has spent over €100 million for Nigeria’s electoral process.
Regardless, the former Rivers State governor pledged that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will adhere strictly to the electoral laws during the polls.
“One assurance I will give you today (yesterday) is that we’ll stand by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and we will stand by whatever decision they make.
“The assurance I will give you from the President Buhari Campaign Organisation is that there will be no interference by the president.
“We’ll play by the rules and whatever the campaign team needs to do to ensure that the election is transparent, we will do.
“We’ll also ensure that the election is such that Nigerians will be proud of, and we hope that the rest who are contesting in other parties will also take the same position,” Amaechi reiterated.
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Speaking at the event, Head of the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ketil Karlsen, said the EU would partner with Nigerians to organise credible polls in 2019.
He said the EU is only concerned about free, fair, credible and peaceful elections, hence “we have invested not only our time but also a lot of European taxpayers’ money on engaging with all the Nigerian stakeholders since 1999.
“We look forward to a good collaboration on this occasion of the 2019 general elections.
“We have had election observers in Nigeria for all general elections since 1999.
“For the EU, we really do not have any preferred candidate, we don’t have any preferred political party, we don’t promote any particular ideology in Nigeria.
“We have spent more than €100 million in giving support for electoral process. So, currently, we support INEC, we support the National Assembly, we support intra-party democracy and we support all stakeholders.
“We had also engaged actively in the party primaries and this gives us reason about the optimism of INEC to conduct elections,” said Karlsen.