The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has agreed to shift the Edo State governorship election by two weeks.

The decision to postpone the election was reached at a security meeting held in Benin, the Edo State capital on Thursday evening.

Nick Dazang, spokesman for the commission, confirmed to journalists that the election would now hold on a new date no less than two weeks from Saturday.

“We have now decided to shift the election forward for another two weeks,” Mr. Dazang said. “We would announce a new date within the next 24 hours.”

Sources said the electoral body decided to reverse itself when the Police and DSS said they could not guarantee the safety of INEC staff during the election.

“The SSS and the police clearly said they can’t guarantee the security of INEC’s personnel and materials,” the source said.

Political analysts say the governorship contest will be majorly between the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Godwin Obaseki, and his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, counterpart, Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

The PDP National Caretaker Committee led by Ahmed Makarfi, had condemned the Police and the DSS for suggesting that the election be postponed, saying that APC may have ‘read the situation’ and was afraid it would lose at the polls.