The Nigerian Bar Association has stated that it is ready to closely monitor the Edo State Gubernatorial poll coming up on Saturday.

This was stated by the Chairman of the NBA Edo Election Monitoring Team, Mr. John Aikpokpo-Martins, the NBA 1st Vice President at the Channels TV Sunrise Daily today.

He stated that the monitoring “takes into cognizance the build-up to the election because most people actually believe that election is an event that it happens on the day of voting. Actually, election is not an event, it’s a process, it starts right from the time INEC declares the time table opened when they call for nominations all through.”

However, he noted that the NBA does not have the resources to follow up from the beginning of the process to the end.

“But as an Association, we put in view the process, but this particular team is set up particularly to observe from tomorrow till the election will be over, that is, the announcement of result”. He said.

In addition, he stated that the NBA has been “watching and observing what is going on but for now, we are satisfied to the extent that the parties have conducted themselves very well, they have campaigned hard,” he said.

However, he stated that there have been series of allegations of threat to violence but no actual violence yet as observed and therefore, he said “in the usual Nigerian way, it’s not really that bad for now”.

Furthermore, while reacting to what should be the expectations on the election day considering the alleged threat to violence, he noted that it is a common phenomenon “but at the end of the day, during the election particularly, it does not actually translate to actual violence in such a large scale that it would get us panicking.”

Meanwhile, he stated that in Edo State where he equally hailed from, they do not have a history of electoral violence and it has always been a peaceful process, “although, to be very frank, the temperature is very high but I think at the end of the day, we are going to have an election devoid of violence”, he added.

Besides, he stated that from the preparedness of the security agencies, it would “dissuade merchants of violence from actually going out to disrupt the election in a violent way”.

In another development, while speaking on whether the Law will permit the election observers to submit reports that can be relied upon by the Tribunal in the event of dispute he stated that “It will not be a bad idea if the Electoral Act can be amended to take into cognizance such” noting that the present provision of the Electoral Act which places a duty on the loser to prove that the election was not properly conducted is a “tall task”.

Therefore, he opined that the duty to prove that the election was regular should be placed on INEC “of course, they will naturally defend what they’ve done”.

Furthermore, he said the Law as it is today may not allow observers to present a report at the Tribunal and that the NBA has kept engaging the National Assembly for reforms.

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