From David Onuoja, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has set the 12th September, 2024 as date for the signing of Peace Accord by Political Parties.
In an extraordinary meeting held on Thursday in Abuja, INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu said the emergency meeting was a crucial one especially as Edo election is around the corner.
According to the INEC Chairman, “after consultation with the National Peace Committee (NPC) under the leadership of the former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar rtd, the signing of the Peace Accord for the Edo State Governorship election will take place on Thursday 12th September 2024 in Benin City.
“You may notice that unlike the previous peace accords signed a few days to the election, this one was early this time around to enable the Peace Committee monitor compliance with the code voluntarily signed by parties, candidates and other critical players in the electoral process.
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“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 said.
INEC Chairman who also informed the political parties of the PVCs collected, told them that, out of 184,438 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) from the recent Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), 125,928 PVCs representing 68.3% of new cards were collected at Ward level in just five days.
This he said, is the highest rate of collection of PVCs since the introduction of the CVR for off-cycle elections in the Bayelsa and Kogi State governorship elections in 2015.
Yakubu however, frowned at political party leaders for their laxities in filing in their agents as required and vowed not to reverse to the old way of manual accreditations.
