President Muhammadu Buhari today met with the National Peace Committee for the 2015 General Elections, headed by former Head of State General Abdusalami Abubakar (rtd) behind closed door at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
It was gathered that the meeting was centered on the maintaining the peace currently being enjoyed in the country following the successful General Elections.
It will be recalled that the committee had brokered the signing of the peace accords, known as the ‘Abuja Accord’ between President Buhari and his predecessor, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, ahead of the March 28 presidential poll.
Addressing reporters after the meeting, which lasted for about an hour, the catholic Bishop of Sokoto State, Bishop Matthew Kukah, said the peace committee had a role to still nurture the peace which Nigeria had got following the general elections.
The meeting is coming barely three days after former President Jonathan, had paid a secret visit to President Buhari at the residence.
Kukah, while speaking to journalists on Abdulsalami’s behalf after yesterday’s meeting with Buhari, said the committee believed in the provision of the existing laws that everybody is innocent until proven guilty.
The clergyman was responding to a question on the view of the committee about Buhari’s administration’s stance on corruption.
Kukah, who affirmed that President Buhari’s anti-corruption war was not heating up the polity, stressed that the committee’s current efforts was to ensure that the right thing was done.
He said the committee was at the Villa to update President Buhari about “the relevance of the peace committee itself and how we can help to nurture what God has given to us”.
He also disclosed that in its recent conversation with Jonathan and political parties’ members, the committee realised that nobody was in favour of corruption or against Buhari’s commitment to fighting it.
“It (Buhari’s anti-graft war) is not heating up the polity. In our conversation with former President Jonathan and members of the parties, I don’t think any Nigerian is in favour of corruption or is against the president’s commitment to ensuring that we turn over a new leaf. I think what we are concerned about is process. It is no longer a military regime, and under our existing laws, everybody is innocent until proven guilty.
“Again, our own commitment is not to intimidate or fight anybody. The former president’s commitment and what he did still remains spectacular, and I think that President Buhari himself appreciates that. So, our effort really is to make sure that the right thing is done”, he said.
Kukah dismissed the reports that Jonathan sought the committee’s intervention on the ongoing probe of his government.
He said: “Anybody is free to come to our committee, but former President Jonathan never, by telephone or another means, talked to the committee. We went to see him, but that was after we had already seen members of the political parties, members of the civil society. We planned to see the speaker because we couldn’t see him yesterday (Monday).
“This is a very planned series of intervention essentially just to hear out everybody, and I think the good news is that Nigerians are committed to a new nation, they are committed to ensuring that the gains and blessings God has given us come to fruition”.
Present at the meeting were General Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III and President of the Christian Association of Nigeria Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.
Also in attendance were Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Nicholas Okoh, Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Cardinal John Onaiyekan, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mrs Priscilla Kuye and Senator Ben Obi.
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