The National Peace Committee NPC on Friday revealed details of some behind-the-scenes maneuvers by partisans and other unnamed elements during the 2023 Presidential Election, disclosing how it came under immense pressure to get the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to either halt collation of the results or cancel the election.
The committee led by a former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar disclosed this on Friday in Abuja when it presented to the public its 106-page report of the 2023 General Elections titled, “Nigeria’s Pursuit of Electoral Compliance: National Peace Committee NPC 2023 General Elections Report”.
Before presenting the report to the public, the committee had earlier met with the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and other management staff of the commission where it was briefed on the electoral umpire’s preparation for the forthcoming Governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states. Other members of the committee are Okoh Ebitu Ukiwe (Vice Chairman); Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah (Convener); Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III; John Cardinal Onaiyekan; business icons, Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola; Vanguard Newspapers Publisher, Sam Amuka Pemu; Ameze Guobadia; Idayat Hassan; Dame Priscilla Kuye; Gen. Martin Luther Agwai; Mahmud Yayale Ahmed; Channels TV owner, John Momoh; Roseline Ukeje; and, Fr. Atta Barkindo, its Head of Secretariat.
Part of the report reads; “As the election day progressed, criticisms and counter criticisms became abundant. The NPC was already being faced with a flurry of phone calls and the need to call INEC to order. The Peace Committee was flooded with requests for intervention. Both the Chairman of the Committee, General Abdulsalami A. Abubakar, the Convener, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah and the Head of NPC Secretariat, Fr. Atta Barkindo, were inundated with calls, requests, and petitions demanding the intervention of the NPC.
Some of the requests wanted the NPC to prevail on INEC to stop collating election results because there were gross violations and lack of compliance with the electoral act. Others demanded that the tenets of the Peace Accord signed were not adhered to and therefore the Committee should call for cancellation of the election entirely. The most significant call was related to the 25% threshold for Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory.
Some of the analysts who reached out to the committee asked that the final election result should not be announced because the resumptive president-elect did not score the required 25% as stated in the electoral act. If anything, there should be a runoff.
For example, the Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy described the silence of National Peace Committee (NPC) as deafening in spite of the avalanche of election petitions and likely far-reaching outcomes that could follow the decisions. The Centre stated that the NPC led by General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd) had prior to the 2023 elections engaged political leaders on the need for a peaceful and credible election. However, what was missing was a post- election formal statement of the NPC on the outcome of the election and the sort of intervention needed to prevent widespread vilence.
The biggest bone of contention was the significance of the 25% threshold for the FCT, the vacuum created by pre-election legal interpretation that was not given by INEC. Within the general context of the mandate of the Peace Committee, there were requests that demanded the Committee to go beyond its mandate and to interfere in an electoral process that only agencies empowered by government to do so.
