MIRIAM NNOLI 
The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan-Kukah, on Sunday said the failure of political parties and their candidates to sign the Peace Accord to shun electoral violence sends a wrong signal to Nigerians.
Bishop Kukah made this remark while speaking at the Edo Election Security Town Hall meeting in Benin City.
Recall that 17 political parties are fielding candidates in the September 21, 2024, Governorship Election in Edo State which includes the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Labour Party (LP), among others, however, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has shunned the peace accord last week over some allegations levelled against the police.
Kukah, one of the conveners of the National Peace Committee headed by former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, said the group can’t force any candidate to sign the peace pact which has become an electoral ritual in the last decade.
READ ALSO
- Edo 2024 Guber: Edo election not about sympathy or political party –Okonoboh
- Edo Election: I Will Restore Edo Dam within 100 Days In Office – Okpebholo
- Edo Election: It’s Esan’s Turn To Be Governor – LP Leader
He said, “The National Peace Committee, what we do is not in the Electoral Act, it’s not law; it’s moral. You can’t compel people to fall in love or love their neighbour.
“If you go back to the 2015 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar the presidential candidate for the PDP, was not there to sign the Peace Accord. And of course, the opposition went to town, which is 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,” Kukah said.
“It’s a pity but we are 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,” he added.
