President Muhammadu Buhari has commended the outgoing President of Niger Republic, Mahamadou Issoufou, and the citizens of the country for the peaceful and successful conduct of the presidential and parliamentary elections on December 27.

Buhari also praised the work of the ECOWAS Mission to the Niger Republic under Sambo, describing it as very impressive.

This is according to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.

Shehu quoted the president as speaking at an audience with former Vice-President Namadi Sambo, who is the leader of the ECOWAS Electoral Observation Mission, appointed to oversee the elections.

According to him, Issoufou deserved to be congratulated on how he organised and conducted the elections.

“I have been very, very impressed by what I have been seeing and hearing. I will call to congratulate him. Issoufou is going home with honour and grace. All is well that ends well,” Buhari reportedly said.

The President, however, expressed regrets over reported incidents of violence in some other countries in the sub-region.

According to him, “Seeing how bloody it has been in some other countries, Issoufou must be congratulated on working out this so well so that he will hand over and go quietly.”

In his remarks, the former Vice-President and leader of the ECOWAS Observation team, described the elections as “successful, free and fair. The elections went well. No incident had created an alarm,” while expressing the hope that this peaceful conduct will continue.