Ahead of the Edo governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that signing of the Peace Accord would take place Thursday 12th September 2024 in Benin City, Edo state.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at an extraordinary meeting with political parties to acquaint them with its level of preparation on the 2024 Edo State governorship election.
According to him, the decision was made after consultation with the National Peace Committee (NPC) under the leadership of former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Yakubu said it was resolved “to do the peace accord 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, he said, “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.
“I therefore urge you as leaders of political parties to note the dates for the INEC Stakeholders meeting and the signing of the Peace Accord and mobilise your State Chairmen and candidates to participate,” the INEC boss added.
On the polling and collation agents uploaded to the portal by parties for the Edo state election, Yakubu noted: “We discovered that there are compliance issues with regard to the quality of uploads, particularly, as they relate to the images of polling unit, ward and local government agents.
“This problem cuts across all political parties despite the fact that this is not being done for the first time. And in keeping with our practice before major elections, we trained officials nominated by political parties. We also set up a Help Desk in the event of any political party needing assistance.
“I want to emphasise that there will be no going back to the manual process. It is gone for good. Already, observer groups and media organisations are in full compliance with the digital procedure. Political parties cannot be an exception.
“You must do the needful instead of constantly complaining of shortfalls in the number of accreditation tags supplied for your agents. We will only produce tags for uploads that meet the requirements of our regulations and guidelines.
“The Commission is determined that your agents at polling units and collation centres must be identified by name and their photographs clearly printed on their accreditation tags duly authorised by the Commission.
“We have also added a QR Code to each tag for easy authentication and verification of your agents at the polling and collation centres. Matters arising from the recent uploads will be discussed at this meeting”.
Yakubu also explained other areas of preparations made for the Edo election by the commission. He said: “We are concluding arrangements with the land and maritime transport unions for logistics. The printing of triplicate copies of voters’ register for each of the 4,519 polling units in Edo state is virtually completed.
“We have concluded the training of security personnel and we are finalising the delivery of the few remaining non-sensitive materials for the election.
“The installation and configuration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines to be deployed on Election Day is completed. Observer accreditation tags are being produced.
“The portal for media accreditation closes next week and so far, 88 media organisations have applied by uploading the details of 698 personnel (journalists, technicians and crew members) to cover the election. We will soon commence the training of various categories of adhoc staff.”
The INEC chair then enjoined the parties to continue to maintain decorum and civility during campaigns.
Also speaking, Chairman of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, urged INEC to be neutral in the conduct of the elections.
He said: “As Nigerians and the international community expect improved elections, we urge INEC to remain neutral as an umpire and ensure its election materials are adequate and ready for the tasks ahead, particularly the BVAS and IReV portals.
“Certainly, the integrity of INEC is at stake. The commission should justify the confidence citizens reposed in it to conduct free, fair, credible, transparent, inclusive and peaceful elections. The success of these elections will rebuild trust in the electoral process and boost voter turnout.
“With good leadership at all levels of governments, Nigeria will regain its place as the great arsenal of democracy in Africa. Citizens will once more be proud to be Nigerians.”
