Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-23-Speech-3-298"
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"en.20070523.21.3-298"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, democracy has lost ground in Nigeria. The elections of Saturday 21 April, which were marked by fraud, violence and deaths, will not have been free or fair. All the international observers, as you said, have confirmed this.
These elections were meant to be a test. For the first time since the country gained independence, in 1960, a democratically-elected president could have hoped to succeed another. This is a missed opportunity! It does not bode at all well for Nigeria, at a time when the country, rich though it is, needs stability if it hopes to escape poverty.
Since the elections, the violence has increased: the international community has a duty to intervene.
I should like to remind you that, last year, the European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize to Mrs Hauwa Ibrahim, a Nigerian lawyer who courageously defended two women who had been sentenced to death by stoning for having committed adultery, for the Sharia is still observed in that country.
On 28 and 29 May, a coalition of opposition parties, civil society and trade union organisations, including the Nigerian lawyers’ union, will organise a two-day movement to protest against the staging of these elections.
The European Parliament must support this democratic movement. It is by doing so that we will defend Nigerians and Nigeria, a large and important African country."@en1
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