By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja （Sundiata Post）- European Union（EU）Chief Election Observer Mission at the 2015 general election，Santiago Fisas Ayxela and his team on Thursday visited the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), at the National Secretariat in Abuja.
The delegation was on a follow-up mission to assess the level of implementation of the recommendations of the 2015 EU Election Observers report produced by various stakeholders, including the APC and to identify the opportunities, challenges and preparations as 2019 General Election approaches.
The APC hinted this in a statement signed by Assistant Director, Publicity, Edegbe Odemwingie sent to Sundiata Post on Thursday.
Sundiata Post recalls that Santiago Fisas Ayxela was the chief election observer team sent by the EU to monitor the 2015 general election.
Santiago Fisas Ayxela who is also a member of the European Parliament, while speaking, informed that he returned to give the President the report of the EU mission.
According to him, “A few months ago, we reached an agreement with the National Assembly and the European Parliament for capacity building. We exchanged views on how our respective Parliaments work and relationships between opposition and the government.
“We are here for the mutual review of the report that we made after the 2015 elections. Of course, there were some recommendations. The recommendations are up to Nigeria to accept or not. It is not the European Union that should decide on that. Some of the recommendations are to be implemented by the legislature，others by INEC and some by the political parties. We also hope to use this meeting to talk about preparation for the 2019 elections, which is not so far away,”he said.
The APC National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun who welcomed and received the delegation with other national official members of the party, expressed the readiness of the Party to exchange views on the report of the 2015 EU EOM and also disclosed preparations in the leadup to the 2019 General elections.
He continued, “We use this opportunity to renew our acquaintance. A lot of very interesting things are happening in your part of the world and of course in ours. It is a good opportunity to touch base again and exchange ideas and views.”
Sundiata Post recalls that other Members of the EU delegation who accompanied Santiego include： Ambassador/Head of the EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ketil Karlsen; Deputy Ambassador, Mr. Richard Young; EU’s Head of Politics, Press and Information Section, Pauline Torehall; EU Programme Manager, Laolu Olawumi. Others are: Milena Yotova, Pierre Dybman of the EU External Service and EU Electoral Experts, Alexander Gray and Margarida Olves.
