FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ABUJA, NIGERIA, February 27, 2019 — Search for Common Ground – Nigeria, in collaboration with the Nigerian media, congratulates Nigerians on the largely peaceful Presidential and National Assembly Elections and calls for the peaceful resolution of any electoral disputes.
Today, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja declared incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, as the winner of the February 23rd Presidential Elections.
With the announcement of the results by INEC, Search – Nigeria invites all Nigerians to continue to remain on the path of peaceful co-existence and urges stakeholders with grievances to follow the legal means of electoral dispute management, in order to protect the important gains made by the country.
Search – Nigeria notes the decision by the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to contest the results in court. It welcomes the decision to use legal means of electoral dispute management, which demonstrates that Nigerians are prepared to toe the path of peace rather than recur to violence in the resolution of disputes.
Search – Nigeria aligns itself with the submissions of the Observation Missions of the African Union, ECOWAS, the European Union, and the Commonwealth Observer Group in calling for restraint and for political parties and candidates to uphold the commitment to peaceful elections and resolution of disputes, in keeping with the two peace accords signed in December 2018 and February 2019.
Political parties and politicians are also invited to call on their supporters to remain calm and peaceful, refraining from any action that might incite post-election violence or increase ethnoreligious tension in the country.
Search – Nigeria also seizes this opportunity to call for other Nigerian stakeholders to use media and social media responsibly, refraining from sharing hate speech, false or unverified rumors, or any information that could incite to violence. We encourage all stakeholders to work toward increased levels of peaceful cohesion as the country prepares for the Governorship and States Houses of Assembly Elections coming up on March 9 in most parts of the country.
#ThinkElectionThinkPeace.
Signed,
Charline Burton
Country Director
Search – Nigeria
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