Presidential candidates have been advised to tread with caution and manage the Nigerian situation carefully as the general elections come up in few days time.
The Chairman of the National Peace Committee and former Head of State, Abdusalami Abubakar, on Wednesday warned presidential candidates participating in Saturday’s election against doing anything that will “make a bad situation worse”.
The ex-military ruler stated this while delivering a remark at the signing of a peace accord at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja.
Present at the signing of the accord were President Muhammadu Buhari, running on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC); Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and other presidential candidates.
Harping on the need to ensure that the elections are conducted peacefully, Abdusalami said: “Don’t do anything to make a bad situation worse.”
He further stated that disharmony among political parties holds back the country from developing.
“Without cooperation among political parties, we are going nowhere,” Abdusalami said.
He reminded the presidential candidates that by signing the peace accord, they are committing themselves to ensure a peaceful election in Nigeria. The former head of state however pointed out that signing of the peace accord will not achieve the required objective “unless all other actors are forced to work with the same rules.”
In another development, the Code of Conduct Tribunal ordered both the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of Police to arrest the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen.Delivering a ruling of the three-man tribunal, the Chairman of the CCT, Danladi Umar, ordered the security agencies to produce Onnoghen at the tribunal on Friday.
He dismissed the objection raised to the application for the issuance of the arrest warrant and ordered that “I want to see the defendant in the dock on Friday”.
The CCT had made the order following an application by the lead prosecuting counsel, Mr. Aliyu Umar (SAN), who said the consistent absence of the CJN from the CCT was a violation of provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
Umar, who anchored his application for Onnothghen’s arrest on section 6(1) of the Practice Direction of the CCT, also opposed the call on the three-man tribunal by the lead defence counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), to hear all pending applications.
Umar maintained that by virtue of section 396(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 no objections could be raised by the defendant until he took his plea.
The prosecuting counsel said Onnoghen having not taken his plea, the objection by him could not be heard.
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