In a bid to ensure a peaceful conduct of the forthcoming 2023 presidential elections, presidential candidates from 18 political parties gathered in Abuja on Wednesday to sign a peace pact.
Notable among the presidential candidates that attended were Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Dan Nwanyanwu of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
Unlike previous elections before 2015, when the National Peace Committee came into existence, the presidential candidates for the 2023 polls will be made to sign the Peace Accord twice.
The first peace accord was signed in September last year, prior to the commencement of campaigns, to obligate the candidates to a peaceful campaign.
This second peace accord is to enlist the candidates’ commitment to a peaceful conduct of the 2023 presidential election.
The peace committee was led by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, Bishop Matthew Kukah, and Dr John Momoh, CON. Other members of the committee were the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba, and former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, who leads the Commonwealth Election Observer Group to Nigeria.
