The National Peace Commission (NPC) yesterday subjected presidential candidates and their political parties to fresh commitment to the peace pact they earlier signed ahead of the polls.
This is just as co-chairman of the peace committee and former head of state, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, implored the 18 presidential candidates to stop overheating the polity and causing tension in the country.
The former Nigerian leader stated this yesterday during a one-day roundtable meeting of the peace committee with the leadership of the nation’s 18 registered political parties and their presidential candidates.
Abdulsalami had on Wednesday told politicians to restrain from their utterances in order not to incite violence in the coming general elections.
Abdulsalami who spoke in Kano where eight political parties and their candidates signed a peace accord noted that Nigerians are disturbed over the likely outcome of the forthcoming 2023 general elections due to their fear that the polls might be inconclusive and marred by violence.
He urged the candidates to stick to issues-based campaigns and refrain from mudslinging and other inciting comments that heat up the polity.
The warning from the former head of state came amid the incessant backlash and lash back among presidential candidates, particularly the flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar.
The two presidential hopefuls have been at loggerheads since the commencement of the campaigns for the 2023 polls, attacking themselves with incisive vituperations in the ongoing credibility battle.