The Head of the 250-member ECOWAS Election Observation Mission (EOM) for Nigeria’s 2015 general elections, former Ghanaian President John Kufuor has called on all political actors to put the country first to ensure free, fair and peaceful polls on March 28 and April 11, 2015.
Speaking on arrival in Abuja on Wednesday 25th March 2015, he said “our prayer is that all Nigerians would act very responsibly throughout the election process so that at the end of the day we have a free, fair and peaceful election for the good of the people and the nation.”
The ECOWAS Chairman, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, who visited Nigeria on Monday 23rd March and the President of the ECOWAS Commission H.E. Kadré Desire Ouédraogo have made similar appeals during separate meetings with key Nigerian political stakeholders, including the presidential candidates of the ruling and opposition political parties and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Former President Kufuor, who was received by the ECOWAS Director of Political Affairs, Dr. Remi Ajibewa and Head Electoral Assistance Division, Mr. Francis Oke, also appealed to the poll observers to eschew “hearsay and rumour.”

He reaffirmed the total neutrality of the ECOWAS Mission made up of Long-term observers, who have been in Nigeria since February and the Short-term observers being deployed across the country’s geopolitical zones ahead of the general elections.
Former President Kufuor led an ECOWAS election fact-finding Mission to Nigeria in October 2014.

He will hold consultations with heads of other international observers and personally observe the presidential elections at selected polling stations on March 28.

The ECOWAS EOM will issue a Preliminary Declaration on 29th March 2015, on the March 28 election.