Nigeria: Presidential Election - 98% of Nigerians Voted Without Intimidation - Garba Shehu

16 March 2023

A Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu said "98 or 99 percent of Nigerians voted in the February 25th Presidential Election without fear or any of intimidation.

Shehu stated this while speaking in an interview on Arise TV's The Morning Show on Thursday.

According to the presidential spokesperson, it is wrong to say the February 25 presidential election was marred by violence.

Recall that there were reported cases of electoral violence during the presidential electionin Lagos, Katsina, Delta and Edo states respectively.

In Plateau, suspected thugs invaded the state collation centre and the incident hampered the announcement of results.

But, Shehu said the reports of electoral violence were only "a few isolated cases", adding that the election was an improvement on the previous polls in the country.

He said, "The talks about violence, I have seen a few of these reports and I do not deny that."

"But to say that this election has been characterised by violence, nobody can justifiably say so. Yes, a few isolated cases but all of the things we saw were significant departures from the past.

"For this, I believe this country has every reason to be thankful to the law enforcement agencies because they were effective and they made sure that 98, 99% percent of Nigerians voted in a free environment without fear or any sort of intimidation."

Meanwhile, the national security adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, has assured Nigerians that security agencies will work round the clock to protect voters, ahead of the governorship and state assembly elections scheduled to hold on Saturday.

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