The spate of attacks on the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will not affect the conduct of next year’s general elections, a former Resident Electoral Commissioner for Akwa Ibom State, Mr Mike Igini has assured.
In recent time, several INEC offices were set ablaze and vandalised in various parts of the country. On Sunday in Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, the commission’s office was razed by some unidentified persons.
Three weeks ago, suspected hoodlums burnt the INEC office at Iyana Mortuary lll in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. The hoodlums, numbering about eight, reportedly scaled the perimeter fence, jumped into the premises and set the INEC building on fire from the back.
Igini said on says attacks on the offices of the electoral umpire are attacks on democracy but non-state actors can’t stop the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
He also said on Channnels Television’s Sunrise Daily that the electoral commission would reproduce all Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) burnt by hoodlums during attacks on its offices.
“I am very concerned about the attacks on INEC offices across the country particularly in the areas that have been identified”, Igini said.
Igini further said that INEC has the information of all PVCs at state and national offices and it would not take it days to reproduce them.
“INEC has the capacity to respond to these challenges, particular in respect to the PVCs that have been burnt. INEC has the number of all the PVCs…It is a matter of days, INEC will produce those PVCs”, he said.
He urged Nigerians not to be discouraged but to ensure they get their PVCs and exercise their franchise in the next general election.
The former REC also decried the inability of security agencies to bring perpetrators of violent attacks on INEC offices to book.
“Why should extra-constitutional actors, why should non-legitimise actors continue to attack INEC. It is an attack on democracy. My pain is that we have not been able to track anybody.
“It is a big challenge to all security agencies in this country that for these years, we have been unable to track those who attack our democracy.
“Look at what happened in the US; all those who attacked the Capitol Hill have been brought to book everyday but here we are in a state of anomie”, Igini said.
There are 87 days to the first set of the elections — the national polls (President and National Assembly) — which hold on 25th February 2023.
