The Chairman of the Governing Council of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Senator Muhammed Abba-Aji, has resigned his appointment.
The Resident Information Officer, IPCR, Abu Michael, said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Abba-Aji’s led board was inaugurated on March 8 by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama.
Abba-Aji reportedly dumped his governorship ambition on the platform of the All Progressives Congress and picked the form of the Peoples Democratic Party to contest the Borno Central Senatorial District seat.
Michael explained that Abba-Aji said his resignation was in accordance with the electoral law since he is at present a senatorial candidate in the forthcoming 2019 election.
He said his resignation was with mixed feelings because IPCR was the most important place to concentrate all resources in view of the diverse conflicts confronting Nigeria.
Abba-Aji expressed regret that the institute was poorly financed, hindering it from carrying out mediation and other interventions to recover durable peace and national cohesion.
He also expressed concern that the institute suffered financial problem that made it impossible to pay the allowances of members of the governing council that have been so committed to provide the leadership needed for IPCR.
Abba-Aji expressed gladness on the efforts to transform the institute into National Peace Commission.
He appealed to the Federal Government to properly mobilise the institute to carrying out peace building activities to make Nigeria the most peaceful country in the world.
He urged the directors and other staff to remain subservient to the Acting Director General for his progressive bid to fulfilling the mandate by which the institute was established.
The Acting Director General, Dr. Bakut T. Bakut, and members of the management in their remarks commended Abba-Aji for his good leadership quality and wished him well in his future engagements.