The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has deployed 163 observers to the gubernatorial and state assembly elections slated for March 18.
The ECOWAS Commission, in a statement issued in Abuja, said the deployment was in line with the ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance of 2001, and was with the invitation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the President of the ECOWAS Commission.
The Commission also said observers will be drawn from the community institutions which included the Commission, the Parliament and the Court of Justice; the West African Ambassadors accredited to ECOWAS; Member States’ Electoral Commissions and Ministries of Foreign Affairs; and electoral experts from West African civil society organisations.
“It will also include a thirteen (13) member core team of electoral experts that has been in the country since the presidential elections.
“The mission will be backstopped by an ECOWAS Technical Team under the coordination of Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security.
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“The upcoming deployment follows the holding of the 25 February Presidential and National Assembly elections to which ECOWAS deployed 250 observers across the six geopolitical zones of the country,” the ECOWAS Commission said.
The ECOWAS Commission further said the 163-member ECOWAS EOM Team will be deployed from 15 to 21 March 2023 to eighteen 18 states, identified based on technical assessment and analysis of trends and hotspots, to monitor the governorship and state assembly elections physically and remotely.
The States, according to the Commission, include: Lagos, Ogun and Oyo in the South West; Rivers, Edo and Delta in South-South; Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo in Southeast; Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue in North-Central; Kano, Kaduna and Sokoto in North-West, including Maiduguri, Adamawa and Taraba in the Northeast.