The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has declined to sign the peace accord for the upcoming Edo State Governorship election on September 21.
Former Head of State Abdulsalami Abubakar announced this on Thursday during the signing ceremony in Benin.
Abubakar explained that the PDP said it would only sign the peace accord if specific conditions are met.
“I met the governor yesterday and he told me the PDP are not going to sign this peace accord,” Abubakar said.
“They had made some observations and I was expecting the chairman of the PDP to come and make that statement, having waited for him this long he chose to announce that the PDP said they are not going to sign and they have got some conditionalities.
“They said that after these conditionalities have been met, they will come to Abuja and sign.”
Edo state’s PDP chairman was absent from the event and did not provide further details about the party’s refusal to sign.
However, Governor Godwin Obaseki had hinted earlier during a meeting with the National Peace Committee that the PDP might not participate in the signing.
While the PDP and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, did not sign the accord, other parties, including the All Progressives Congress (APC) with candidate Monday Okpebholo and the Labour Party’s candidate Olumide Akpata, went ahead and signed the agreement.
KanyiDaily recalls that the Court of Appeal in Abuja recently overturned a previous ruling by a Federal High Court that had ordered the PDP to include 381 ad-hoc delegates in its February 22 primary election in Edo State.