BISHOP of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Fr. Matthew Kukah, has stated that failure of political parties and their candidates to sign the Peace Accord to shun electoral violence sends a wrong signal to Nigerians.
Speaking on Sunday, September 15, in Benin City, during a programme, the Edo Election Security Town Hall, Kukah stated: “If you go back to 2015, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was the presidential candidate for the PDP and was not there to sign the Peace Accord, but he turned up at the Kukah Centre the next day to sign.
“What is also interesting is that the current President, Bola Tinubu, who was a presidential candidate, did not sign. It was not our fault that political opposition didn’t take advantage of it.”
Out of the 17 political parties fielding candidates in the September 21, off-cycle governorship election in Edo State, only the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Labour Party (LP), among others, signed the Accord, with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) declining over allegations bias against the Police.
State chairmen and candidates of 17 political parties signed the peace accord, while PDP state Chairman, Tony Aziegbemi, and the party’s candidate, Asue Ighodalo, were present, but declined to sign.
