Ahead of the presidential election on Saturday, former Sierra Leonean President Mike Koroma, on Thursday, led the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Election Monitoring Team to the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) in Abuja.

The acting director of defence information, Tukur Gusau, disclosed this in a statement.

Mr Koroma said their mission was to observe the conduct of the upcoming elections and ensure that the process was hitch-free.

He said it was customary for ECOWAS to support member states, “especially that a big brother country like Nigeria prepares to go to the polls to elect its leaders.”

The ex-Sierra Leonean president said in the course of their duty, the team had met with critical stakeholders, including the Independent National Electoral Commission, civil society and security agencies.

He added that the engagement would ensure a conducive atmosphere for peaceful, free and fair elections.

The head of the ECOWAS team identified the issues of fuel scarcity, and the difficulty Nigerians experienced accessing the new naira currency as contending threats to the elections.

He, however, said there was a strong determination by all stakeholders to achieve a hitch-free election.

The chief of defence staff, Lucky Irabor, expressed delight for hosting the team. Mr Irabor recalled his peacekeeping mission days in Sierra Leone during the reign of Mike Koroma, whom he described as a role model in Africa who did his best to ensure a peaceful democratic transition in that country.

On election security, Mr Irabor said that the Nigeria Police Force being the lead security agency with other paramilitary agencies at the forefront, would have residual support of members of the armed forces.

He emphasised that the military would remain in the background during the elections as demanded by the constitution, which required military aid in support of civil authority.

Mr Irabor assured the team that the military and other security agencies would live up to the expectation of Nigerians during the elections.

He assured the ECOWAS team of a hitch-free and successful electioneering process.

(NAN)