The United Kingdom Tuesday said it will deploy observers to Edo and Ondo states to monitor governorship elections and would impose visa ban on any electoral offenders.
This is coming Just 24 hours after the United States imposed a visa ban on alleged electoral offenders in the last governorship elections in Edo, Bayelsa and Kogi States.
The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, who disclosed this in a statement on the high commission’s Twitter handle, said her country would place restrictions on the individuals’ eligibility to travel to the UK, restrictions on access to UK-based assets, or prosecution under international law just as it did after the 2019 elections.
Laing said she had met with the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the Edo State governorship election slated for Saturday.
The statement said: “As a friend and partner of Nigeria we are closely following the lead up to the off-cycle governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states scheduled for September 19 and October 10 respectively.
“These elections are important, both as an essential element of effective governance within both states and an indicator of the strength of Nigeria’s democratic institutions.
“Our High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, has held meetings with leaders of the two main political parties, the APC and PDP.
“The discussions focused on the need for the parties’ leaders to prevail on supporters to avoid violence before and after the elections and we welcome the Edo candidates‘signature of the National Peace Committee and INEC convened peace accord yesterday.
“We will be deploying observation missions to both the Edo and Ondo elections and supporting civil society led observation.
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