The national peace committee (NPC) says it was pushed to persuade the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to annul the 2023 presidential election.
Abdulsalami Abubakar, former head of state and NPC chair,
spoke on Friday during the presentation of the NPC’s 106-page report on the
2023 elections.
The report is titled ‘Nigeria’s Pursuit of Electoral
Compliance: National Peace Committee NPC 2023 General Elections Report’.
Abdulsalami said the committee faced covert attempts by
certain individuals and groups to exert influence over the electoral process.
”As the election day progressed, criticisms and counter
criticisms became abundant. The NPC was already being faced with a flurry of
phone calls and the need to call INEC to order. The Peace Committee was flooded
with requests for intervention,” the report reads in part.
“Both the Chairman of the Committee, General Abdulsalami A.
Abubakar, the Convener, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah and the Head of NPC
Secretariat, Fr. Atta Barkindo, were inundated with calls, requests, and
petitions demanding the intervention of the NPC.
“Some of the requests wanted the NPC to prevail on INEC to
stop collating election results because there were gross violations and lack of
compliance with the electoral act.
“Others demanded that
the tenets of the Peace Accord signed were not adhered to and therefore the
Committee should call for cancellation of the election entirely.
“The most significant call was related to the 25% threshold
for Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory. Some of the analysts who reached
out to the committee asked that the final election result should not be
announced because the resumptive president-elect did not score the required 25%
as stated in the electoral act. If anything, there should be a runoff.”
The report said the Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy, a
civil society organisation (CSO), criticised the NPC for its silence following
the election, despite the numerous petitions and potential consequences.
The centre reportedly said that while the NPC had encouraged
peaceful elections beforehand, it failed to issue a formal statement after the
election to address the outcome and prevent potential violence.
Responding to the criticisms, the report explained that the
NPC’s role was purely moral and not constitutional.
“The NPC has no mandate to arrest violators of process or
interfere with the constitutional duties of INEC. It is set up to provide moral
intervention, defined by mediation and moral persuasion to ensure that there is
peace,” the report said.
The report noted that the committee’s mandate is centered on
promoting peace and encouraging adherence to the rule of law, rather than
taking any legal or punitive action.
“Most people are not aware that the NPC provides only a
moral intervention, and it has no constitutional duty to arrest, punish or
prosecute any citizen for any wrongdoing,” the report added.
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So of what use is your NPC sir, if it cannot rise up in the stark face of electoral fraud and breach of the Peace accord it encourages political parties and politicians to sign?
ReplyDeleteOur leaders dey fall hand too much for Naija that is why all this yeye things go continue dey happen to us. If the system is wrong, pause and fix that issue before taking on an election I beg una.
ReplyDeletewhen Tinubu has said it on his first comment after the result was announced he said that people were surprised that the person they they voted for was not there but here he is as the president after people refused to vote for him, everybody hard it but nothing was done, even they so called judges were deaf then. Abdulsalami should shut the hail up his mouth, the money they shared did not reach him, he is faced with financial challenges. all of them that support this evil in Nigeria must confess and suffer for it.
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