The peace accord signed by the presidential candidates to stick to rules that guarantee peace conduct of the election is threatened following the threat by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to pull out of the Peace Accord its presidential candidate signed with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other political parties ahead of the 2019 elections.
According to the party in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party has taken strong exceptions to the recent statements and actions from officials of government and the ruling party that it considers pose grave threat to the peaceful conduct of the polls in a peaceful and fair manner.
Taking its cue from the a statement by the Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, during an NTA Programmed in which he said ‘foreigners who interfere in the coming election would return in body bags’, the party said the statements were not only condemnable and inciting but also sign posts the violence being planned by the ruling party during and after the polls and called on the international community to sanction the governor.
According to Ologbondiyan : “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after due consideration of comments, threats and incendiary actions by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Buhari Presidency, which are directly inimical to a peaceful, free and fair election, the PDP is left with no option than to consider a review of its signatory in the national peace accord, if no action is immediately taken to curb this trend.
“ Nigerians are still in a shock over comments by the governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who declared on a national television that members of the global democratic institutions that are working for a peaceful election in Nigeria will return to their countries in body bags. What a threat? We call on the international community to immediately impose a travel ban on el-Rufai for this inciting comment against peaceful elections in our country.”
He also said the redeployment of Kayode Egbetokun as new Commissioner of Police in Kwara state was part of the plan by the ruling party to create confusion in the state in the bid to manipulate the election in its favour.
He said; “A former Chief Security Officer to APC leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, CP Kayode Egbetokun, as Kwara state Commissioner of Police, where he has been handed the instruction to incite the people, cause pandemonium and pave the way for outright rigging in favour of President Buhari and all other candidates on the platform of APC. This is in line with plans by the Buhari Presidency and the APC to effect a mass deployment of top security officers, particularly the police, to intimidate, harass and manhandle Nigerians that will not support the self-succession bid of President Muhammadu Buhari as well as aiding APC thugs to snatch ballot boxes and orchestrate violence in the elections. Nigerians are aware of how CP Kayode Egbetokun was posted to Lagos state by the disgraced former Inspector General of Police, Idris Ibrahim, to serve the same partisan interest and how that posting was stopped by the new IGP Adamu Mohammed. Now, he is being redeployed to Kwara state for the same ignoble plot. It is necessary to state that the PDP is a party of peace and we are committed to the peace accord. However, the deployment of the Kayode Egbetokun as Kwara CP directly negates the principle of the Peace Accord and can only hurt the fragile peace that currently exists in Kwara state. We wish to remind the acting Inspector General, Adamu Mohammed that his acceptability among Nigerians across party line was based on the pedigree, which was presented to Nigerians before his appointment.
“…..We therefore call on the National Peace Committee to immediately summon el-Rufai on his inflammatory remarks against peaceful election in our country. The PDP hold that any situation that seeks to allow the APC to abuse the tenets of the accord will definitely force our party to review our signatory to the peace process. In that regard, we might have no option left than to allow our members to defend their votes with whatever that is available to them. This country belongs to all of us and no individual or group, no matter how highly placed, can subjugate other citizens or seek to appropriate any sort of absolutism to themselves, ” he concluded
