The All Progressives Congress [APC] presidential candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari and his Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] counterpart, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as well as 72 other presidential candidates will, on Wednesday sign another peaceful elections pact to accept the outcome of the February 16 presidential election.
The accord is titled, “Renewal of our pledges to peaceful elections”.
The new accord read in part:
“You may recall that on December 11, 2018, all of us, the presidential candidates along with our party chairmen, signed the 2019 National Peace Accord.
“The substance of the accord was our commitment to free, fair and credible elections in our dear country.
“In the accord, we agreed to, among other things, run an issue-based campaign and pledged that our electoral campaigns would not involve any religious incitement, ethnic or tribal profiling, both by ourselves and all agents acting in our names.
“Now that the campaigns have come to an end, we meet today to renew our pledge for peaceful elections.
“We therefore call on all fellow citizens of our dear country, and our party supporters, to refrain from violence or any acts that may in any way jeopardise our collective vision of a free, fair and credible election.
“In addition, we call on INEC and all security agencies to ensure strict adherence to their constitutional roles. We also pledge to respect the outcome of free, fair and credible elections.
“Today again, we renew our commitment to a united, democratic and prosperous Nigeria.
“We want to appeal to all Nigerians to stand together at this critical phase of our nation’s history. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
It could be recalled that PDP had, on February 6, threatened to opt out of the first accord following governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’s threat to foreging observers.
PDP had alleged that the APC and its members had breached the terms of the accord.
Speaking, the PDP spokesman, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan wondered why the Federal Government and the peace committee had refused to sanction Governor El-Rufai.
Ologbondiyan said the PDP might pull out of the former accord and not sign the peace accord if no action was immediately taken to curb the alleged trend.