Kukah: Tinubu didn’t sign peace accord in 2023… we can’t compel Edo PDP

Matthew Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto diocese, says a candidate who shuns the peace accord sends a wrong signal “which can very easily be exploited by the opposition”. 

Speaking on Sunday in Benin during a town hall, Kukah said the national peace committee (NPC) cannot force any candidate to sign the peace pact and that President Bola Tinubu did not sign the peace accord as a candidate in 2023.

However, checks by TheCable showed that Tinubu attended the peace accord ceremony and signed the pact on February 22, 2023.

BACKGROUND

On September 12, political parties and candidates for the governorship election in Edo signed a peace accord in Benin City.

However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not sign the accord.

On September 11, Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, had said the ruling party in the state would not sign the peace accord over alleged bias of the police.

The Edo governor claimed that police personnel who were expected to enforce the peace accord were working for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Obaseki claimed that the police had detained 10 PDP members without sufficient evidence or valid cases against them.

‘SENDING THE WRONG SIGNAL’

The NPC was conceptualised in 2014 in response to the threats in the lead up to the 2015 general election.

Headed by Abdulsalami Abubakar, a former head of state, the committee has conducted many peace pacts among candidates vying for political offices at state and federal levels.

“I think it’s important to understand that the National Peace Committee, what we do is not in the Electoral Act, it’s not law; it’s moral,” the clergyman said.

“You can’t compel people to fall in love or love their neighbour… you can exhort people to do so.

“But I think what is most important, first of all, if you go back to the 2019 elections, the presidential candidate for the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was not there to sign the peace accord.

“And, of course, the opposition went to town, which is really what it ought to be, and the next day, he (Atiku) turned up to sign.

“What is also very interesting is that the current president, when he was a presidential candidate, did not sign. It wasn’t our fault that the political opposition didn’t take advantage of it.

“But the most important thing is that, what happened in Edo state, we try the best we can to ensure that if the people have any anxieties, if they have issues, and approach the peace committee, we try to deal with those issues.

“That’s why the IGP is present, INEC is present, and as I said, it’s a pity, but we don’t, you know, we’re not going to take anybody to court for not signing the peace accord.

“The only thing it does to you as a candidate is that it sends a wrong signal which can be very easily exploited by the opposition.”

The Edo governorship poll has been slated for September 21.