Voters Awareness Initiative, an accredited observer group, says the February 25 elections were peaceful and credible.

VAI president Wale Ogunade disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

The observer group described the outcome of the election as a reflection of the people’s will and victory for democracy.

“We deployed over 100 accredited election observers, monitored reports of other observer organizations as well as the media for situation reports. We observed the conduct of the elections in 176,606 polling stations across the 36 states and the FCT,” the group said. “We can confidently report that the electoral process was duly complied with by the electoral umpire at the polling stations and at the different stages of the collation of results.”

VAI explained that the polls were “in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, at variance with the campaign of lies, falsehood, misinformation, blackmail and calumny against the electoral umpire.”

It commended the Independent National Electoral Commission for its professionalism, objectivity and dogged commitment to the provisions of the Electoral Act in the conduct of the elections.

“We are indeed proud and commend INEC for the professional and unbiased discharge of it’s responsibility in line with the provisions of the constitution and global best practices,” the statement said.

It advised aggreived candidates and political parties to seek redress in court.

“The Electoral Act provides mechanism for the resolution of disputes. We admonished any of the contestants who may be aggrieved to seek redress in court rather than through claims of incitement in the social media which has no place in law,” VAI added.

(NAN)