Femi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), says the final report of the European Union (EU) election observation mission in Nigeria on the 2023 polls cannot be relied upon.
Speaking on Friday in an interview on Channels Television, Falana said it smacks of colonial mentality for Nigerians to start celebrating or debating the EU mission report on the elections.
On Tuesday, the EU mission presented its report on the general election in Abuja.
Barry Andrews, the chief observer, said the report was based on the analysis of compliance with Nigeria’s regional and international commitments for democratic elections.
The observation team said the elections exposed enduring systemic weaknesses that needed to be corrected.
Reacting to the development, the human rights lawyer said the reports by local media regarding the elections were “more credible” than what the EU election observers presented.
“I’m very reluctant to speak about the report of the EU observers team because it smacks of colonial mentality for us in this age and time to be celebrating the report of the EU observers,” Falana said.
“I have found reports in the local media much more credible than the report of the EU. We should not waste our time debating what the EU observers found.
“For instance, they were saying that about 97 people were killed. The local media have reported about 137 deaths and that has been confirmed by the human rights community.
“I can count other areas that one cannot rely upon.”