Ahead of the 21 September Governorship Election in Edo State, Candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Monday Okpebholo; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Asue Ighodalo; Labour Party (LP), Olumide Akpata, and 13 others will on 12 September sign a peace accord in Benin.
The peace pact is being spearheaded by the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee (NPC).
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this, yesterday, in Abuja at an extraordinary meeting with political parties.
He said unlike in the past when the NPC organized the signing ceremony very close to the election, the committee has decided to hold the event earlier in order to be able to monitor the compliance of parties.
Yakubu said; “After consultations with the National Peace Committee under the leadership of our respected former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, the signing of the Peace Accord for the Edo State Governorship election will take place on Thursday 12th September 2024 in Benin City.
“Supported by eminent members of the Peace Committee, the occasion will be presided over by the Chairman, General Abdulsalami Abubakar.
“You may notice that unlike the previous peace accords signed a few days to the election, it was decided to do so early this time around to enable the Peace Committee to monitor compliance with the code voluntarily signed by parties, candidates and other critical players in the electoral process such as INEC and the security agencies during the remaining days to the election. This will add further weight to the Peace Accord beyond mere ceremony as demanded by many observers and even some of the political actors themselves.
“The signing of the Peace Accord will be preceded by the INEC Stakeholders meeting to be held on Wednesday 11th September 2024 in Benin City. As usual, the meeting will be addressed by the INEC Chairman and the Inspector-General of Police. It is an open forum for political parties, candidates, observers and the media to interact with the Commission and the security agencies ahead of the election.
He restated the decisions of INEC to conduct a Mock Accreditation of voters to test-run the deployment of BVAS for the election as well as the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal on Tuesday 10 September.
On other levels of preparation for the election, he said INEC has intensified engagements with stakeholders at State and Local Government levels, while voter education is ongoing.
