By Opposition party to investigate circumstances surrounding the absence
By Tasie Theodore
Controversy is trailing the absence of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP flagbearer, Atiku Abubakar at a Peace Summit designed to extract commitments from political parties and presidential candidates that they and their supporters would abide by the rules and ensure a peaceful electioneering 2019 process.
While a spokesman for the Atiku campaign says the former Vice President was not formally invited to the event, the organisers are insisting that they did. To resolve the issue, the opposition party says it would undertake an inquiry into the issue with a view to determining what exactly went wrong.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the flagbearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, attended the summit and signed the pact.
The organisers say candidates who missed the signing ceremony can yet call at their office to do so.
The National Peace Committee has the likes of former military Heads of States, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Yakubu Gowon as members with the public intellectual and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Hassan Kukah manning the secretariat as convener.
The group was similarly involved in getting the principal candidates in the 2015 elections to sign a similar pact ahead of the conduct of that poll.
Atiku Abubakar, PDP flagbearer
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