Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, former President of The Gambia yesterday returned from a month’s fact-finding mission in Nigeria, ahead of the Presidential elections, slated for April 2007.

He was appointed by the President of the Ecowas Comission to lead a mission to evaluate and report to Ecowas the situation ahead of the Presidential elections in Nigeria.

Speaking at a press conference shortly after his arrival at the Banjul International Airport, Sir Dawda said he and his team were received by President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria on arrival in Lagos.

According to him, they had meetings with the Interior Minister, Inspector-General of Police, EU Ambassadors, accredited to Nigeria, Civil Society Organisations and also Ambassadors of Ecowas members states accredited to Nigeria and electoral officers. He said Nigeria has a registered population of 61.5 million voters, 120,000 polling stations with 50 Presidential aspirants.

According to him, the Nigerian people are ready to participate postively in the various elections. “From the look of things, the Nigerian people are ready to give a fairly high rate of turn-out in the elections. We look at the political atmosphere and also the security situation and I hope there will be a free and fair election. The Nigerian people are anticipating that,” he said.

He said the whole idea of sending the mission to Nigeria by Ecowas Commission is an effort to promote good governance among members’ states.

For his part, Nuru Jobe of the Ecowas Banjul Office thanked the Gambian leader, President Yahya Jammeh for his personal commitment towards the success of the mission in Nigeria.