The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has explained why its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, did not attend the signing of the National Peace Accord ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Naija News reports that the party said Atiku’s absence was a deliberate decision to protest what it described as the failure of the peace process to take firm action against political violence and inflammatory statements.
ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, explained the party’s position during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday.
According to him, politicians have signed peace agreements before several elections, but incidents of violence have continued without enough action from the National Peace Committee.
“We’ve been signing this thing year in, year out; every election cycle, we sign in support of this commitment. Things still happen; people still get killed, harassed, like in the case of Osun, but we don’t hear the Peace Committee say anything.
“When Senator Fadahunsi said that they should go out and kill people, we didn’t hear the Peace Committee say anything. So, what is the point? So, it’s our way of saying no. If we want to be part of this, if you want to be taking us seriously, then you need to up your game.
“When the President said all is fair in politics, he set the narrative for the violence that followed in the Osun election. We are saying you need to do more. It’s not just to gather us for the ceremony of signing. If we commit to something, you have to be able to ask people to abide by it“, he said.
