Peace pact will work only if security agencies stay neutral – APC warns

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has said the peace accord signed by the political parties on Wednesday ahead of the February elections would only work if the Presidency ensures the neutrality of the security agencies during the polls.

The spokesperson of the party, Lai Mohammed, stated this at a conference organised by the Savannah Centre and CSIS Partnership on polls, in Abuja on Thursday.

He said the opposition party was already losing confidence in one of the agencies.

“It will not be successful if there is no sincerity of purpose. I think in this particular respect, the Presidency has more to do if it wants the election to be violent-free It has to ensure the neutrality of all the security agencies involved in the election,” he said.

“As long as there is a level-playing field and the umpires are really neutral then that removes areas of conflict.”

Mr. Mohammed added, “The credibility of the security agencies is at its lowest ebb. I don’t know how many of you watch the television two days ago when the spokesperson of Department of State Security went to demonize a particular party, accusing that party of being in the process hacking into INEC data base. What they sought to achieve by that I don’t know.

“You need to see the kind of humiliation they went through in the hands of DSS. They went through physical torture and mental torture. These young people arrested were called presidential enemies. They were called saboteurs; they were asked how can you working with a party that wants to destabilize Nigeria? If this is the mindset of a particular security agencies there is no way that party will have confidence in that agency.”