The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has fixed September 12 as the date for the signing of the peace accord for the Edo governorship election in Benin.

INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this at an extraordinary meeting with political parties on Thursday in Abuja regarding the 2024 Edo governorship election.

Mr Yakubu said the chairman of the National Peace Committee (NPC) and former head of state, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, would preside over the exercise’s date.

“You may notice that unlike the previous peace accords signed a few days before the election, INEC decided to do this early this time around.

“This is 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,” he said.

Mr Yakubu urged political parties to maintain decorum and civility in their campaigns and comply with the commission’s regulations and guidelines for conducting rallies and processions.

He said that so far, no political party has submitted to INEC the dates and locations of their major campaign rallies and processions to better coordinate their campaign activities.

On the commission’s preparations for the election, Mr Yakubu said INEC had concluded the training of security personnel and finalised the delivery of the few remaining non-sensitive materials.

“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.

“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,” he said.

He also said 88 media organisations had applied for the accreditation of 698 personnel, adding that the training of various categories of ad hoc staff would commence soon.

Mr Yakubu, however, said that after harvesting the details of polling and collation agents uploaded to the portal for the Edo election, INEC discovered compliance issues, particularly with the quality of PU agents.

He said the problem cuts across all political parties despite assistance offered by INEC and the fact that the digital nomination was not being done for the first time.

“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.

“We will only produce tags for uploads that meet the requirements of our regulations and guidelines,” Mr Yakubu said.

In his remarks, IPAC chairman Yusuf Dantalle urged INEC to remain neutral as an umpire in the Edo election.

He also urged the commission to ensure its election materials, particularly the BVAS and IReV portals, were adequate and ready for the tasks ahead.

(NAN)