The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it had recorded 41 attacks on its facilities across the country within the last two years.
INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this at the commission’s emergency meeting with security agencies under the auspices of the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
Yakubu said the attacks on the commission’s facilities should now be treated as a national security emergency.
“No doubt, the last few weeks have been very challenging to the commission. The spate of arson and vandalisation targeting the commission’s facilities and property has become a major threat to our scheduled activities and the entire electoral process.
“In the last two years, the commission has recorded a total of 41 incidents involving deliberate attacks on the commission’s facilities. Nine of these incidents happened in 2019 and 21 cases in 2020.
“In the last four weeks, 11 offices of the commission were either set ablaze or vandalised. Two of these incidents were caused by Boko Haram and bandit attacks, while 10 resulted from thuggery during election and post-election violence.
“However, the majority of the attacks (29 out of 41) were unrelated to election or electoral activities.
“In fact, 18 of them occurred during the #EndSARS protests in October last year while 11 attacks were organised by “unknown gunmen” and “hoodlums”.
Yakubu said that although the commission was assessing loss of materials during recent attacks, its preliminary assessment so far indicated that it lost 1,105 ballot boxes, 694 voting cubicles, 429 electric generating sets and 13 utility vehicles (Toyota Hilux).
He said that by working together with the security agencies, INEC could stop these attacks and the wanton destruction of critical electoral assets.
“These attacks, which initially appeared as isolated and occasional actions, have now become more frequent and systematic, targeted at demobilising and dismantling critical electoral infrastructure in the country.
“This will not only undermine the commission’s capacity to organise elections and other electoral activities but will also damage the nation’s electoral process and democracy.
“Indeed, these attacks on the commission’s facilities should now be treated as a national security emergency,” Yakubu said.
The INEC chairman stressed the need to ramp up ICCES activities to curtail unjustifiable acts of aggression.
“This will entail not only drawing on our separate and collective resources within ICCES, but also increased collaboration with citizens, communities and all stakeholders.”
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