Sokoto, 20 November, 2022 / 8:44 pm (ACI Africa).
Members of the National Peace Committee (NPC) in Nigeria who include representatives of the Catholic Bishops in the West African nation have raised concern over violent election campaigns ahead of the country’s February 2023 polls.
In a press release obtained by ACI Africa Tuesday, November 15, NPC members who include Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Nigeria’s Sokoto Diocese and John Cardinal Onaiyekan say Nigerians are “genuinely concerned, troubled and disappointed” by how some political actors have been conducting themselves in the last few weeks.
“Nigerians have been fed a menu of intemperate language, intimidation and outright violence in the field of the campaigns,” they say in the statement signed by the committee’s convener and Chairman, Bishop Kukah and General Abdusalami Abubakar, respectively.
There is “an increasing tone of desperation, if not incitement, among some of the contestants and members of their parties,” say members of the Non-governmental Organization conceptualized in 2014 to respond to emerging threats occasioned by the 2015 general elections.
They further say that intra and inter party wrangles have persisted with some political actors taking advantage of the squabbles to “pursue their frivolous ambitions in the courts”.
