A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) under the aegis of Citizen Observant Hub, yesterday, said the February 25 presidential elections in Nigeria wasn’t free, fair and credible and therefore called for intervention of international bodies even as they also called for calm among Nigerians.

The non-political group made this call at a hybrid press conference on Democracy on Trial, and the Truth Must Prevail, held in Ikeja, on the outcome of the February 25th general election.

Speaking, election and policy expert, Ambassador Chris Iyama said, “We are asking international bodies not to fall for the purported results. We are calling for help. This election on the 25th is not free, fair and credible. It has fallen short of international best practices. We are hoping that the different coalition will head to court and ensure that justice is served,” he assured the public.

In his overview of the election, Iyama conceded how Nigerians came out en masse to vote as the Citizen Observant Hub mobilised over 2,700 observers across Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and deployed over 774 local government coordinators to observe the election.

According to Iyama, the coalition launched the citizen situation room in Jos in February, with over 30 data analysts observing and collating data from their field observers across the country.

He said, “We had different key stakeholders to look at the challenges we might experience in the election. Our over 2,700 observers were at polling units as early as 6.44am before the arrival of officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”

While describing the just concluded general election as one of the worst elections ever conducted by INEC, Iyamu said it broke its own rules in the middle of the game, not minding the feelings of over 200 million citizens of this country.

He outlined the glitches including the late arrival of INEC staff and failure to upload the results as the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu promised before the election, the malfunctioning Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and children voting in the North as seen in video clips.

While cautioning that none should undermine the democracy the nation enjoys in this country, he said the result collated in Abuja did not meet with what their observers sent into their data centre.

(The Guardian)

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