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Candidates of 13 political parties, yesterday signed a peace accord and promised to cooperate for a violence-free election ahead of Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Osun State.
The National Peace Committee under the leadership of the former head of state, General Abdusalam Abubakar, had invited the 15 governorship candidates to the Atlantis Event Centre, Osogbo, with the Independent INEC and security agencies.
The governorship candidates committed themselves to avoid all manners of actions that can trigger violence or compromise the credibility of the election.
The NPC Chairman, General AbdulSalam Abubakar, appealed to the people of the state to allow peace in the Saturday governorship election.
The convener of NPC who also stood in for the Chairman, Bishop Matthew Kukah, lamented that politicians are taking the peace accord for formalities, saying it is for the development of democracy.
“For many Nigerians, the work of the peace committee seems by many, as a mere formality. The signing of this national peace accord is something that I think will focus more on its symbolic gesture but I think that many of us as we are here, that the focus is on ensuring free, fair and non-violent elections.
“While we are signing this peace accord, we are also encouraging the political actors and I am speaking to you, there is a need to expand the frontiers of our freedom to participate in the processes concerning our country.”
However, the governorship candidates of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Goke Omigbodun, Accord Party (AP), Dr Akin Ogunbiyi and Labour Party (LP), Lasun Yusuf were absent.
