ALL Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate General Muhammadu Buhari has threatened to back out of the historic Abuja peace accord if the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) continues with its insults and verbal attacks on his person.
In January, President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari signed the Abuja agreement committing both of them to shunning statements that could incite violence before during and after next month's elections. Witnessed by former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, both candidates signed what has been known as the Abuja Accord, which commits them to shunning inflammatory language and behaviour.
However, General Buhari has warned that no one should regard his patriotic commitment to maintaining national peace for weakness, stressing that neither President Jonathan nor his aides have a monopoly of the ability to flagrantly breach the Abuja Peace Accord. General Buhari has also warned the PDP against interfering with the constitutional duties and operations of the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) or surreptitiously hounding its chairman Professor Attahiru Jega.
Speaking through his media director, Dr Chidi Maduekwe, General Buhari said that it was time the presidential allies stopped attacking his person. Dr Maduekwe recalled that upon the postponement of the general elections, the Buhari camp swiftly appealed to its supporters to be calm in the interest of the nation and the peace accord by the PDP has not acted likewise.
Dr Maduekwe said: “Regrettably, following this postponement, the PDP government acting in cohort with the close aides and associates of Mr President have been falling head over hills among themselves as they compete on who delivers most acidic insult, abuse, incendiary words and inflammatory remarks on our revered presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari. These actions are all in breach of the Abuja Peace Accord jointly signed by all the presidential candidates.
"This is totally unacceptable and consequently we cannot continue to guarantee the tolerance limit of our teeming supporters nationwide who are daily being inundated with death wish commentaries on the person of General Muhammadu Buhari. It has become imperative to ask Mr President to rein in his aides if he must be seen to walk his talk that, his ambition is not worth any spill of human blood."
In addition, Chief Maduekwe said that Inec must be allowed to use its card readers for the elections and any attempt to prevent this would be opposed. Citing the examples of Ghana, Kenya and Sierra Leone as African countries where the technology of card reader had been proven to give credible elections, he added that Inec should be given a chance to conduct the elections using the cards.
