The Independent National Electoral Commission has finally postponed the September 10 governorship election in Edo State to a later date.
The election is now scheduled to hold in about two weeks’ time.
The Point learnt that INEC was compelled to shift the election, earlier scheduled for Saturday, by two separate security reports received by the commission from the Department of State Services and the police on the conduct of the exercise.
It was gathered that the unfavourable security reports from the DSS and the police forced the commission to postpone the election, which it had earlier in the day insisted would hold as scheduled.
Confirming the development, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, told our correspondent on the phone that the Edo election had indeed been shifted.
Oyekanmi said that the commission took the decision to postpone the election in deference to the security reports it had just received from the police and the DSS.
He said, “There is a new development over the election. It will be postponed. We have two letters from both the police and the DSS; so we are going to address a press conference within the next five minutes in our office in Benin.”
The two security agencies had on Wednesday advised INEC to postpone the election earlier scheduled for Saturday but the commission had insisted on going ahead with the exercise.
Later on Thursday, it made a u-turn and announced a postponement of the election by two weeks.
