The 17 governorship candidates participating in the forthcoming election in Edo State will sign a peace accord tomorrow (Thursday) in the presence of a former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu; and other stakeholders.

The signing of the accord will take place at 10 a.m., at the Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub on Airport Road, Benin.

The INEC chairman assured that the commission would ensure a credible, free and fair poll, while it had released all funds for the conduct of the election to the Edo State office, and that his visit would allow INEC to test-run the materials received so far.

Yakubu was accompanied on the visits by INEC’s National Commissioner supervising Edo, Delta, and Bayelsa States, Prof. Rhoda Gamus; the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of INEC in Edo, Dr. Anugbum Onuoha; and the Administrative Secretary of INEC in Edo, Emmanuel Ogbodu.

INEC chairman said: “This is a readiness assessment visit to Edo State and the purpose is to visit some of the local government areas. We have visited three to assess the readiness in terms of the level of preparation, the materials received so far, and how they are organising the election in the next eleven days.

“Funds have been made available, and nobody is complaining. All the funds have been made available to the state and the state has made the funds available to the local government areas.”

THE NATION