INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS' VERDICTS ON POLLS ARE WRONG - PARTY CHAIRMAN

The National Chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Prince Chudi Chukwuani has said that claims by international observers that the National Assembly and presidential elections were free and fair were misplaced.

He also lamented that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega did not take enough measures to protect the corps members serving as ad-hoc staff of the commission.

Justifying his position that the observers were wrong, Chukwuani said the international observers didn't have the requisite tool to adjudge the credibility of the elections.

Speaking to newsmen in Abuja on the assessment of the international observers, Chukwuani said they were naïve in their assessments.

'The so-called international observers don't have the lists of polling units in the country neither do they have the voters' register, therefore, the judgment of the elections results cannot be said to be accurate.'

The four international observers, European Union, National Democratic Institute (NDI), International Republican Institute (IRI) and Commonwealth had at different fora adjudged the presidential and National Assembly elections so far as free fair and credible.

However, the NDP national chairman, reacting to this, accused the international observers of naivety.

Said he: 'International observers are very naïve in their judgment. They don't have the lists of voters; they don't have the lists of the polling units in the country and that means they don't have checklist on which to base their judgment.'

He then advised those using their assessments for judging the elections to stop since it could not be said to be authoritative. The party boss agreed that there was rigging in the presidential election. He said while the rigging in the South showed inflation of figures, that of the North showed reduction of figures. 'The rigging was both in the North and South. In the North, they under-reported the voting while in the South they over-reported the voting.'

Also, the national chairman accused the INEC chairman of not showing enough concern for the corps members that were killed in the post-election violence.