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 was 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.
Peoplesmind
