Edo Gov’ship: Obaseki, Ize-Iyamu, Others To Sign Peace Accord
Daily Metro News NG
Ahead of next weekend’s governorship election in Edo State, the National Peace Committee (NPC) has said that Governor Godwin Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), his All Progrssives Congress (APC) challenger, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and other governorship candidates would sign a peace accord on September 15.
Recall that the Edo governorship election is slated for Saturday, September 19, 2020 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The peace accord is to commit political parties and actors to a peaceful election and a non-violent transfer of power in the state.
Secretary of NPC and Bishop of the Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, disclosed this to journalists shortly after the meeting of the committee on Friday in Abuja.
The committee urged Edo state residents and voters to be committed to peaceful election for the development of the state.
Speaking earlier, the national chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said the electoral umpire was ready to conduct free, fair and credible elections in Edo and Ondo States.
Yakubu appealed to all political parties to allow the process of the elections to be successful in both states even as he assured that the Thursday’s fire incident at Ondo State INEC office will not affect the forthcoming election exercise.
According to him, “We have 5, 100 smart card readers good to go for the Ondo election but unfortunately with the fire incident we have lost everything.
“I’m glad to say that the election in Ondo is going to go ahead. We have a huge capacity in the neighbouring states to get additional smart card readers while investigation continues on the cause of the fire incident,” he said.
For his part, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, who was represented by the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of South-West geo-political zone, Leye Oyebade, also assured that policemen will ensure free, fair elections in Edo and Ondo States.