Gender and Election Watch (GEW) Room of Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF) has urged relevant stakeholders to uphold rights of female candidates in the elections.
In a statement in Abuja, it condemned efforts and attempts to truncate emergence of female candidates.
Chief Executive Officer of GEW, Mufuliat Fijabi, noted Nigeria cannot achieve inclusive democracy without female participation.
Fijabi said delay and uncertainty around results of Adamawa State governorship elections is not encouraging for women who contested positions and a negative indication for inclusive democratic practice which Nigeria should aim at.
She hailed female candidates for their resilience and participation in the polls.
On last Saturday’s elections, Fijabi said Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) made some improvement with logistics.
Noting GEW deployed 350 observers, she called on security agencies to do more to keep peace and protect lives.
Fijabi said,
“The trend of incumbent governors banning NGO observers is a bad practice, especially when INEC has accreditated them to observe elections and a definitive legal statement by INEC must be issued to stop future recurrence.”