Peace committee: How we were pressured to ask INEC to cancel 2023 presidential poll

The national peace committee (NPC) says it was pushed to persuade the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to annul the 2023 presidential election.

Abdulsalami Abubakar, former head of state and NPC chair, spoke on Friday during the presentation of the NPC’s 106-page report on the 2023 elections.

The report is titled ‘Nigeria’s Pursuit of Electoral Compliance: National Peace Committee NPC 2023 General Elections Report’.

Abdulsalami said the committee faced covert attempts by certain individuals and groups to exert influence over the electoral process.

”As the election day progressed, criticisms and counter criticisms became abundant. The NPC was already being faced with a flurry of phone calls and the need to call INEC to order. The Peace Committee was flooded with requests for intervention,” the report reads in part.

“Both the Chairman of the Committee, General Abdulsalami A. Abubakar, the Convener, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah and the Head of NPC Secretariat, Fr. Atta Barkindo, were inundated with calls, requests, and petitions demanding the intervention of the NPC.

“Some of the requests wanted the NPC to prevail on INEC to stop collating election results because there were gross violations and lack of compliance with the electoral act.

“Others demanded that the tenets of the Peace Accord signed were not adhered to and therefore the Committee should call for cancellation of the election entirely.

“The most significant call was related to the 25% threshold for Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory. Some of the analysts who reached out to the committee asked that the final election result should not be announced because the resumptive president-elect did not score the required 25% as stated in the electoral act. If anything, there should be a runoff.”

The report said the Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy, a civil society organisation (CSO), criticised the NPC for its silence following the election, despite the numerous petitions and potential consequences.

The centre reportedly said that while the NPC had encouraged peaceful elections beforehand, it failed to issue a formal statement after the election to address the outcome and prevent potential violence.

Responding to the criticisms, the report explained that the NPC’s role was purely moral and not constitutional.

“The NPC has no mandate to arrest violators of process or interfere with the constitutional duties of INEC. It is set up to provide moral intervention, defined by mediation and moral persuasion to ensure that there is peace,” the report said.

The report noted that the committee’s mandate is centered on promoting peace and encouraging adherence to the rule of law, rather than taking any legal or punitive action.

“Most people are not aware that the NPC provides only a moral intervention, and it has no constitutional duty to arrest, punish or prosecute any citizen for any wrongdoing,” the report added.