• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us

For all official information and updates regarding COVID-19, visit the South African Department of Health's website at www.sacoronavirus.co.za

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
Home Africa

Nigerian opposition candidate signs election peace accord

13 December 2018, 8:06 AM  |
Reuters Reuters |  @SABCNews
Atiku Abubakar

Atiku Abubakar says the party is fully committed to a peaceful electoral process and elections in 2019.

Atiku Abubakar

Image: Reuters

Atiku Abubakar says the party is fully committed to a peaceful electoral process and elections in 2019.

Nigerian opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar signed an election peace accord on Wednesday, a day after his absence from the official signing ceremony raised concerns about the conduct of the February 2019 vote.

“I appended my signature to the Peace Accord,” Abubakar, the candidate for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and President Muhammadu Buhari’s main competitor, said on his official Twitter account.

Buhari, who is seeking a second term and other candidates from minor parties signed the accord on Tuesday.

The peace accord ceremony was held days after the PDP said authorities had frozen the bank accounts of its vice presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

Elections to choose the leader of Africa’s most populous country – the continent’s top oil producer and by many measures its largest economy – have in the past been marred by violence, vote-rigging and voter intimidation.

The ceremony was an attempt to mirror the signing of an acclaimed deal ahead of voting in 2015, when Buhari came to power. It was credited with helping prevent a repeat of violence in the wake of the 2011 election which Human Rights Watch said killed 800 people and displaced 65 000.

The accord aims to ensure that the 2019 elections are “free, fair and credible,” the document said. Signatories pledged that their campaigns would refrain from “religious incitement” and “ethnic or tribal profiling”, and that they would not incite violence, according to the document.

The PDP said it was investigating the circumstances behind the “unfortunate communication lapse” between party officials and the National Peace Committee (NPC), the non-governmental organisation that arranged the event, which resulted in Abubakar’s absence.

“Our presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and the party are fully committed to a peaceful electoral process and elections in 2019,” said PDP spokesperson Kola Ologbondiyan in an emailed statement.

He said the PDP would visit the NPC office to “fulfil allnecessary obligations towards the peace accord ahead of the 2019 general elections”.

The NPC earlier said it had sent invitations for the event to all 91 registered parties and the 73 presidential candidates.

Independent observers for the 2015 race, the first time the agreement was signed, have since praised the accord for helping Nigeria pull off its first-ever peaceful transition from the ruling party to the opposition. Buhari defeated the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.

Share article
Tags: NigeriaMuhammadu BuhariHuman Rights WatchNigeria electionAtiku Abubakar
Previous Post

‘A star is born’ musical leads film contenders for SAG Awards

Next Post

JMPD launches investigation following global festival chaos

Related Posts

People and police gather near the scene where a deadly fire broke out at the Abu Sifin church in Giza, Egypt, August 14, 2022.

Egyptian church fire kills at least 41, most of them children

15 August 2022, 7:49 AM
A views shows posters of Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto.

Ruto pulls ahead in Kenya’s presidential vote count as tempers fray

15 August 2022, 4:31 AM
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga

Raila Odinga falls behind Ruto in official results

14 August 2022, 5:31 PM
Tanzania's Minister for Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups, Dr Dorothy Gwajima

Tanzania clamps down on child abuse

14 August 2022, 2:06 PM
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and SADC Chairperson of SADC Organ on Politics, Security and Defence

Ramaphosa to table report on Mozambique troop deployment this week

14 August 2022, 2:00 PM
Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio

Sierra Leone President Bio makes two top military appointments

14 August 2022, 1:22 PM
Next Post
Concert at FNB

JMPD launches investigation following global festival chaos

Most Viewed

  • 24hrs
  • Week
  • Month
  • EMS says fire at Bree Street Taxi Rank in Johannesburg has been extinguished
  • The public has until 18 May to make submissions on Icasa’s regulations for extension of expiry period for data, airtime
  • ANC NEC expected to hold a special meeting on Sunday
  • Eastern Cape flood victims plead for support as access to food, services remains difficult
  • Amathole Regional Secretary elated to have corruption charges against him dropped
  • Home Affairs clamps down on passport fraud and introduces transit visas
  • Home Affairs tightens rules on passport application to curb corruption
  • TEMBISA UNREST: ‘Police killed him because they thought he was taking a video’
  • Zimbabwe to repatriate thousands of its nationals following cancellation of special permits
  • Security tightened ahead of Prince Simakade ritual of entering the kraal
  • Home Affairs clamps down on passport fraud and introduces transit visas
  • Mogalakwena Municipality in Limpopo directed to terminate appointment of more than 400 workers
  • ANC Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte passes away
  • Home Affairs tightens rules on passport application to curb corruption
  • Siboniso Duma elected as the new ANC KZN chair

LATEST

Spokesperson for the Jacob Zuma Foundation Mzwanele Manyi outside the Supreme Court of Appeal on August 15, 2022.
  • Politics

Medical parole case another attempt to undermine Zuma’s integrity: Manyi


Actress Anne Heche arrives at the 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California.
  • Lifestyle

Anne Heche taken off life support, dies aged 53


A poster condemning rape.
  • South Africa

Several suspects arrested in the Western Cape for various sexual offences


  • Politics

LIVE: Supreme Court of Appeal hears former president Jacob Zuma’s appeal


Two police officers seen patrolling an area after unrest.
  • South Africa

Social Media platforms assist SAPS in July Unrest investigations, three more to appear in court


Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel clashes with Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte after the Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur match at Stamford Bridge in London, Britain on August 14, 2022.
  • Sport

Chelsea’s Tuchel blasts referee and VAR after Spurs draw


Weather

  • About the SABC
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Site Map

SABC © 2022

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2022

Previous Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper ‘A star is born’ musical leads film contenders for SAG Awards
Next Concert at FNB JMPD launches investigation following global festival chaos