Matthew Hassan-Kukah, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, has stated that candidates cannot be forced to sign a peace accord ahead of the 2024, Edo governorship election.
The signing of the peace accord was in the instance of the National Peace Committee headed by the former Nigeria’s Head of State, General Abdulsalam abubakar to shun electoral violence during elections.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, shunned the pre-election peace accord, which has become an electoral ritual in the last decade.
However, speaking about the development on Sunday, during the Edo Election Security Townhall programme in Benin City, Bishop Kukah who is one of the conveners of the National Peace Committee, said the group can’t force any candidate to sign.
While noting that the failure of the PDP to sign the peace accord a wrong signal to Nigerians, Kukah revealed that the current president Bola Tinubu also refused to sign when he was a presidential candidate.
“The National Peace Committee, what we do is not in the Electoral Act, it is not a law. It is moral. You can’t compel people to love their neighbour.
“If you go back to the 2015 election, Atiku Abubakar the presidential candidate for the PDP, was not there to sign the Peace Accord. And the opposition went to town, which is what it ought to be, and the next day, Atiku turned up to sign.
“What is also very interesting is that the current president did not sign when he was a presidential candidate. it wasn’t our fault that the political opposition didn’t take advantage of it.
“It is a pity but we are not going to take anybody to court for not signing it. The only thing it does to you as a candidate is that it sends a wrong signal which can be exploited by the opposition,” Kukah stated.
