The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan-Kukah, on Sunday, backed the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on its refusal to sign the peace accord initiated by the National Peace Committee (NPC).

Kukah, who spoke at the Edo Election Security Townhall, a programme organised by Channels Television, said the NPC cannot force any candidate to sign the peace pact which has become an electoral ritual in the last decade.

He recalled that President Bola Tinubu refused to sign the accord ahead of the 2023 presidential election, noting that PDP’s refusal to sign the pact should not cause any bad blood.

The cleric, however, noted that the failure of political parties and their candidates to sign the peace accord has sent a wrong signal to Nigerians.

The PDP was conspicuously absent when parties fielding candidates in Saturday’s election signed the peace accord last week in Benin City.

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The party had previously voiced its concern over the role of police in the election and demanded the redeployment of the state’s Commissioner of Police, Nemo Edwin-Iwo, and the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Anugbum Onuoha.

Kukah 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.

“It’s a pity, but we will not 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.”

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