INEC Shifts Edo Governor Polls To Sept. 28 Over Security Concerns

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, last night, yielded to security advice and postponed the Edo State election to Wednesday, September 28, 2016.

The polls was initial scheduled to hold tomorrow September 10, 2016. INEC National Commissioner for Voters Education and Publicity, Mr Solomon Atoyebi at a news briefing in Benin, the Edo State capital at 8pm last night said the reason for the postponement was security concerns.

Mr. Atoyebi had at an earlier briefing, yesterday afternoon, brushed aside the security advice from the police and the Department of State Services, DSS, to postpone the polls on the basis of alleged security threats directed against some states of the federation, Edo inclusive, because the electoral commission was 97 per cent prepared to conduct the exercise.

The postponement elicited immediate response from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which rejected the move and Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose, who said the development was a bad signal for Nigeria’s democracy.