Pope Joins Prayers For Peaceful Nigeria Election

Pope Joins Prayers For Peaceful Nigeria Election

The pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI has prayed for peace, progress and security during the forthcoming elections in Nigeria .

Pope Benedict gave his blessings when he granted audience to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Martins Uhomoibhi at the Vatican .

In a statement, the Nigerian Embassy in Rome said Uhomoibhi also delivered a special message from President Goodluck Jonathan to the Pope.

He also held bilateral talks with his Italian counterpart, Mr. Giampiero Massolo.

Election monitors
Uhomoibhi urged the Italian government, to send election monitors for the April polls and reiterated President Jonathan's commitment to a free, fair and credible election where every vote would count.

The statement further said that the Nigerian government sought collaboration in the area of training of young Nigerian diplomats in the control of proliferation of small and light weapons in West Africa .

Other areas where collaboration was sought included investment in the agriculture, industry and tourism.

Active ties

The statement quoted Massolo as affirming that Italy 's enduring relationship with Africa was based on healthy partnership.

Massolo said the Italian government was committed to ‘more active' collaboration with Nigeria .

“We look forward to more active collaboration in multilateral fora like the G8, G20 to address the challenges of globalisation including transnational crimes, migration, human rights and socio-economic development,'' the statement quotes him as saying.

NAN/Margaret/Yinka