As part of their efforts to calm tension within the political sphere, the former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar together with Matthew Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese; former Vice-President Ebitu Ukiwe and Nicholas Okoh, Anglican Bishop, yesterday stormed the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission to discuss with the Chairman of the Commission, Mahmood Yakubu ways and democratic processes to adopt, to make the forthcoming 2019 presidential election a successful one.
Abdulsalami who is the chairman of the peace committee seized the opportunity to urged politicians to shun violence and anything that would disrupt the forthcoming elections.
His words as quoted by the cable, “We are all aware that we are approaching the 2019 election and already you are very much aware how the polity is being heated as a result of which we have decided to step our action in ensuring that there is peace in the country and the politicians play by the rule of the game and also the security agencies and the INEC play their role accordingly.
“This morning we have interacted with the INEC chairman and his staff and also the security agencies here who have got one role or the other to perform in this election.
“All in all, we have had a briefing and later this afternoon we are going to meet the political parties and the chairmen of the 91 registered political parties in furtherance of ensuring that peace continues. We are going to listen to them, hear their complaints and also appeal to them to make sure that politics is played without bitterness.
“As you are very much aware if there is no peace in any country there would be no country at all. So this is the essence of this meeting to ensure that we are all on the same wave length.”
Meanwhile, the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee, has said former President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat in the 2015 presidential election and subsequently congratulated the winner and candidate of the All Progressives Congress,APC,Muhammadu Buhari, without its knowledge.
This came as the committee said but for his decision citing national interest above any other, the then President Jonathan, who was a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,would have arrested,prosecuted and possibly jailed key members of the then opposition APC,including Buhari, ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar,for commiting treason against the Nigerian state
The revelation which is coming over three years after the 2015 election that saw Buhari defeating the then sitting president, was contained in the report the committee unveiled Tuesday,in Abuja, after a peace meeting it held with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC, Prof. Mamood Yakubu,heads of security agencies, and representatives of the country’s 91 political parties.
According to a report,tagged: “2015 General Elections: The Untold Story”, published by The Kukah Centre, the National Peace Committee said it didn’t convince Jonathan to concede defeat to Buhari contrary to popular media reports.
The committee which said its primary concern “ has always been how to get the defeated candidates to accept the outcome of the election by conceding promptly and unequivocally “ so that the winner would naturally have a much easier task to be magnanimous in victory,disclosed that “the committee in the evening of March 31 requested audience with President Jonathan at the Villa.”
Going further,the committee,in the report said:” As it awaited confirmation for the meeting with the president, the Committee Chairman, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, GCFR also put a call through to General Buhari who informed him that President Jonathan had only minutes earlier called to concede the elections.” It added:”He particularly asked the Committee to please convey his good wishes to President Jonathan for his great act of statesmanship.
“Shortly after that, members of the committee who were greatly relieved, headed to the Villa where they met privately with President Jonathan and thanked him for his great courage
“At this point, the Buhari Campaign team were yet to address the press on the historic development and as such, many Nigerians got the news of the concession from General Abubakar’s brief media scrum with State House Correspondents which perhaps helped create the wrong, but widespread impression that the committee sat with President Jonathan at the Villa as the results came in and had directly prevailed on him to concede.”
The report also disclosed how Jonathan, in a meeting with the committee which has Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar as chairman,religious leaders and media mogul,Sam Amuka, as members, cited “national interest” as reason he stopped his earlier decision to press home with treasonable charges against the then APC presidential candidate, Buhari and other leaders of the party, over threats to form a parallel government if they didn’t win the election.
According to the 51-page document, Jonathan jettisoned the plan “in the interest of peace and national stability.”
Part of page 13 of the report reads: “A meeting with Jonathan was held at the Aso Rock Villa in the afternoon of Wednesday, March 25, 2015. At the meeting, he (Jonathan) raised some issues concerning the state of the nation, the threat of violence by the opposition (APC then) based on allegations that he (Jonathan) and his party were planning to rig the elections.
“He (Jonathan) noted that he took very seriously the threat by leading members of the opposition to form a parallel government in the event that they didn’t win the elections, but that he chose not to react to such apparent treasonable acts in the interest of peace.”
The report also detailed series of meetings held with leaders of the two major political parties in 2015- APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 2019: Play by the rules of the game, NPC tasks politicians