From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
British government has told the All Progressives Congress (APC) that United Kingdom has no preferred presidential candidate among the 18 contestants for the next year’s election.
High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, made the clarification when she led a delegation on a visit to the Abdullahi Adamu-led APC national leadership at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja, yesterday.
She said the visit was part of the series of consultations the British government was holding with various critical stakeholders, especially the political parties, ahead of poll.
She revealed that the discussions centred on security for the elections, the possibility of providing conducive environment for the electorate to exercise their franchise without molestation and intimidation and efforts to ensure a credible poll.
“This is one of the series of meetings I am having with political parties, the presidential candidates and the party chairmen. Today is the turn of the APC chairman to pass on our message about the general election. “We discussed kind of general messages about the 2023 elections. We welcome Nigeria’s commitment to democracy. We welcome the president’s to credible and secured election.
“We also talked a little detail about the conditions necessary for this elections to happen. We talked about the concerns over security, people turning out on that day to vote without intimidation.
“We also discussed about voting in a secured environment that will enable the electorate vote for the candidates they want,” she explained.
The High Commissioner emphasised that the UK has no interest in any candidate.
“All we want is credible elections and we will work with whichever presidential candidate who emerges at last. UK and Nigeria have very strong relationship and we want Nigeria to succeed and democracy as part of it and that is success,” she noted.