By Abdallah el-Kurebe, Editor
As preparations for the rerun election of the Sokoto governorship election hits up, stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday signed an accord the peaceful exercise.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Sokoto, among six states where governorship rerun elections would hold on March 23.
The peace accord was facilitated by the National Peace Committee (NPC), which is organised by former military head of state, Alhaji Abdulsalami Abubakar and Bishop Hassan Matthew Kukah during a town hall meeting held at Dankani Guest Palace, Sokoto.
While the APC’s Public Relations Officer, Abubakar Yabo represented the party, the PDP was represented by Muhammad Dangogo.
They both expressed their parties’ readiness to ensure peaceful processes before, during and after the polls.
Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, who was represented by the Wazirin Sokoto, Prof. Sambo Junaidu described the meeting as timely and capable of ensuring a peaceful electoral process.
He also urged politicians to allow the will of God to prevail in all electoral exercises.
“Power belongs to Almighty Allah, Allah gives power to who He wishes, we should know that violence can never be a source of accessing power. As a state, we can only make progress if there is peace and unity, without peace and unity we cannot grow. I charge all of you to remain committed towards maintaining the relative peace we have been known for,” the Sultan said.
For Bishop Kukah, “It is only God that chooses a leader, and whenever we try to change the will of God, there must be consequences. We have to be careful with what we do during election periods, we must conduct ourselves in ways that will not destroy our society.”
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Malam Abubakar Musa assured of the Commission’s readiness to ensure credible rerun poll.
“We expect our politicians to be committed towards a credible process so that we will have a smooth rerun. We will remain non-bias to all political parties. We will always ensure free, fair and credible election,” he said.