A former head of state and chairman of the National Peace Committee, Abdulsalami Abubakar, has that the committee invited all political parties to the peace accord signing by presidential candidates ahead of the 2019 elections on Tuesday, December 11.

This is contrary to the claim by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, that he was not invited to the event.

Premium Times reports that Atiku and other presidential candidates such as Omoyele Sowore of the AAC, and Oby Ezekwesili of ACPN had all said they were not invited.
However, in a short interview with journalists at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, venue of the event, Abubakar insisted that all the candidates were invited.

Specifically reacting to Atiku’s claim, Abubakar said: “You have seen the number of parties that have been invited. He will answer for himself but speaking for the National Peace Committee, everybody was invited. What reasons do we have not to invite somebody? This accord was for all political parties to sign to be of goodwill and good behaviour during elections. If there is a breakdown of communications somewhere I don’t know.”

Abubakar mentioned that he was surprised by Atiku’s absence.

“What surprises me is that when we had the conference with the political parties he came out and agreed on this agenda, the parties agreed and it was the recommendation that the peace committee has taken,” he said.

The former head of state, however, expressed confidence that Atiku’s absence at the event will not weaken the accord. He added that there is still room for the absent candidates to sign the peace accord.

Source:- Naij