By FEMI OGUNSHOLA

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, says Nigeria is fully prepared for free, fair, credible and hitch-free 2023 general election.

Gbajabiamila said this when he received a delegation from the European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria led by Mr Barry Andrews at the National Assembly in Abuja on Friday.

He said there were 18 political parties contesting various elective positions, starting on Feb. 25.

“We are prepared for it and those saddled with the responsibility, from Mr President, the National Assembly, INEC, the political parties, to all the other stakeholders along the chain, we are all ready to make the votes count.

“The electoral law is in place. We have done all we needed to do, and now we have to wait and see how things pan out.

“Election is a process that leads to the final day. It’s very complex, but at the same time it can be very simple, depending on the attitude of the actors,” Gbajabiamila added.

He said that the use of technology was an added advantage, toward fast-tracking the process.

“We are hoping there will be no problems in the area of deployment of technology and also security issues, we hope not to worry about it much,” he said.

The speaker said that an area of concern was the collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC), which he said was still low, compared with the number of registered voters.

Gbajabiamila said the National Assembly did much to improve the electoral law to expand the opportunities for participation by Nigerians.

Earlier, Andrews said that the EU mission was happy to be invited to observe the 2023 general election, just like the previous elections.

Andrews assured that the body had its work cut out and had a reliable data-collection methodology to give a report on the outcome of the poll.

He said the group would unveil its work plan at a news conference in Abuja, while its preliminary report on the election would be released two days after the election. (NAN)