NIGERIA’S Acting President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has pledged the country’s continued support to the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions, ECONEC, in its efforts to deliver credible elections and advance democracy and good governance in the region.

Receiving members of the ECONEC Governing board at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa on Friday, July 7, he congratulated Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chair of the Nigerian Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), on his election as President of the ECONEC governing board last March at Cotonou, Benin Republic.

Prof Osinbajo said Nigeria was honoured to host the Network’s Permanent Secretariat in Abuja, which was commissioned on Thursday, and promised that Nigeria would support the effective functioning of the Secretariat.

Prof. Yakubu had earlier briefed the Vice president on the mandate of ECONEC, set up by the ECOWAS Commission in 2008 to promote credible elections in member States by encouraging the gradual harmonization of electoral legislations and best practices through experience-sharing and peer learning of good practices in electoral matters.

The audience was on the margins of the ECONEC governing board’s two-day meeting in Abuja. The board members were also received by the Nigerian Senate President Bukola Saraki on Thursday and are due to travel from Abuja on Support and Needs Assessment Missions to Liberia and Sierra Leone, which are holding crucial elections in October 2017 and March 2018 respectively.

The five-member ECONEC board comprises heads of electoral commissions of Nigeria, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde.

—  Jul 8, 2017 @ 15:35 GMT