The Secretary-General of the United Nations, UN, António Guterres, has expressed hope that a peaceful environment would be created for the electorate to enable them perform their civic duty during Nigeria’s elections.
He spoke during the accord signing organised by the National Peace Committee (NPC) under the chairmanship of the former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Thursday’s second agreement tagged, “2019 National Peace Accord’’ on the Prevention of violence and Acceptance of Results was signed by President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), among others.
Guterres, who was represented by the United Nations Secretary-General Special Representative in West Africa and the Sahel, Mohammed Ibn Chambas, noted that there was no space for incitement of violence in the country.
According to him, the forthcoming elections will provide Nigeria the opportunity to reaffirm its regional and global position in the world.
While calling on INEC and security officials to maintain neutrality in the exercise, he said: “We are not here to support any political party or candidate but we are here to support peace in Nigeria.’’
In his remarks, the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Nigeria, Ketil Karlsen, said candidates must respect the outcome of the election to guarantee peaceful co-existence among diverse socio-political groups in the country.
Abubakar, who is the Chairman of the NPC, lauded the presidential candidates for ensuring relative peace during their various campaigns and urged them to continue to maintain peace during and after the elections.
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