As pressure mounts ahead of next year’s general election, the activities of Nigeria’s electoral umpire has come under threat.
INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu says the agency has tracked 50 attacks across the country since campaigning began just over a month ago.
These attacks have resulted in the destruction of some of its buildings, as well as thousands of permanent voter cards, ballot boxes and voting cubicles, megaphones election bags, including some electric power generators.
[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/tyKX6ekWgGs” lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.tvcnews.tv/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]
The most recent incident occurred when criminals set a blaze the commission’s offices in Ogun and Osun State. To check this destructive trend, inspector General of Police, Usman Baba has directed Commissioners of Police across the country to protect INEC facilities as part of measures to prevent further attacks on the Commission’s properties.
INEC Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye says it has been challenging and a cause of concern for the commission. Since 2019, the Commission has experienced over 45 attacks in east offices and facilities, and just recently, it experienced two additional attacks in Abeokuta, Ogun state.
INEC offices contain sensitive and non sensitive materials, and moving and protecting some of these sensitive and non-sensitive materials has also been very challenging.
He stated that Commission views it very seriously and that was why the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission convened a meeting of the agency Conservative Committee on Election Security to discuss these spate of attacks and the type of security challenge these attacks pose to the nation and to electoral continuity.
According to him, the meeting convened had in attendance the National Security Adviser, and the Inspector General of Police and resolutions were arrived at.
It was also agreed upon that there is a need to upscale the intelligence gathering and sharing of information and also the protection of some of these offices, because the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission are critical national assets, and some of the materials in these offices are materials that are required for the conduct of elections, and some of these materials are procured outside the country.
“At the moment there’s a challenge with some of these materials, it poses a very grave danger to the conduct of elections, that is why it was considered imperative to summon, this intelligent Conservative Committee meeting to deliberate on the issue and protect critical national assets and also protect staff who are working in some of these institutions so that electoral business can continue.
Highlighting some of the challenges, the INEC Commissioner for Information and Voter Education said the Commission has offices in the 774 local government areas of Nigeria and in all these offices there are electoral officers and assistant electoral officers and other categories of staff and these staff go to work on a daily basis.
“The moment our offices are burnt, you prevent these staff from going to work, the implication is that election business will stop those local governments.
“Secondly, these offices were built with taxpayers money, the moment these offices are burnt, we have to go looking for an alternative office. We have to go hiring an alternative office, sometimes you don’t know the political affiliation of the owners of some of these offices you hire.
“The moment you burn our offices, fear is instilled in the minds of some of our staff from continuing with the electoral business we are doing.
“Fear is also instilled in the minds of the voters and nation. Voters become afraid to come out to vote on election day
“As far as the Commission is concerned, there is no activity that is too small to be planned. When we plan on acquiring ballot boxes and voting cubicles, we plan and plan ahead because these things have to be manufactured.
In relation to the issue of PVC, Mr. Okoye said PVCs are printed with the taxpayers money, adding that over 400 and 904 ballot boxes were lost in the attack which needs to be replaced.
“29 voting cubicles, 8 generator, 57 election bags and 30 megaphones and 65,699 PVCs were lost. All of these have to be replaced.
He added that the commission will have to abandon some aspects of activities that have already planned in order to get back some of the items that were lost.
“As the election is fast approaching and as far as the Commission is concerned, we need to conclude on so many of these activities before the election.
Related posts:
INEC determined to conclude supplementary Polls- Festus Okoye
Fireworks with Festus Okoye
Abia INEC Office set on fire, unclaimed PVCs burnt
INEC office in Imo State Attacked, Burnt
Nigerians uninformed of INEC’s biometric device which detects multiple registrations-Okoye
Experts advise parents to instill strong moral values in their children to curb drug abuse
FG to instill more transparency in licensing operations of Solid Minerals
Minister Calls On Parents To Instill Moral Values in Children
