Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Presidency has alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has violated the peace accord signed by presidential candidates on 11th December, 2018.
It accused the PDP presidential campaign organisation of bad faith, character assassination and inflammatory utterances.
The PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar had signed the peace accord on December 12th, a day after the main agreement was signed, claiming he was not formally informed.
The accord is an undertaking by all the presidential candidates to ensure peaceful and rancour free campaigns before, during and after the 2019 general elections.
The peace accord, which was also signed by all presidential candidates before the 2015 election, is the brainchild of former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abdusalami Abubakar (retd).
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu in a statement, called on the National Peace Committee to act the alleged violation.
Shehu, noted that the open and unsubstantiated allegations against the President’s family by the Atiku Abubakar media campaign contravenes the spirit of the peace accord that was signed at the instance of Abubakar, Bishop Mathew Kukah and other eminent public figures who constitute the committee.
“Dragging the President’s family into the campaign and accusing them of wrongdoing without producing unassailable evidence, amounts to an act of bad faith and malice.
“Instead of concentrating their efforts on persuading Nigerians on why they should be trusted to rule again after 16 years of failure, the PDP presidential campaign organisation is seeking to divert public attention from the large scale corruption and havoc it wreaked on the country during its 16 years of misrule,” the presidential media aide said.
Shehu added that, more than one week after accusing President Buhari’s family of corruption and wrong doing, the PDP presidential campaign still cannot provide proof of the allegations against them, despite being encouraged by the Presidency and the public to do so.
“Instead, they are ridiculously expecting the accused to prove their own allegations instead of it being the other way round,” he said.
Shehu accused the PDP presidential campaign of being indolent and poor in research, noting that it was irresponsible to go public with allegations that they could not prove, describing that as something other than politics. “It is sheer desperation and a clear sign of disarray in the PDP campaign,” he said.