Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission despite several attacks on the commission’s facilities across the country, the general election of 2023 will go forward.
Speaking to an audience at Chatham House in London on Tuesday afternoon, Yakubu lamented the rising number of arson assaults on INEC’s facilities while assuring the audience that the commission will proceed with the polls as planned.
The electoral umpire chairman noted that 50 of the commission’s facilities had been assaulted over the course of four years, but added that this meant the commission would still need to repair any burned-out structures and replace any lost materials.
He did, however, reassure that INEC had strengthened security presence in certain of the attack-prone areas in coordination with security agencies.
He pointed out that the most recent assault on the commission’s buildings took place on Sunday of last week, but the commission was able to respond quickly with the aid of the military, minimizing the level of damage done to that attacked site.
“In four years, 50 facilities (have been) attacked in various parts of the country. The implications of the attacks is that we have to rebuild facilities and replace materials. The commission and security agencies have increased their presence in some of these locations. The last attack happened on Sunday last week but because of the cooperation between the military and the electoral commission, we were able to respond and the damage was limited to just a section of the building in a local government office.
“The commission has repeatedly called for concerted efforts to control and check these attacks and in December last year the National Assembly held a public hearing on these attacks and we hope that authorities have these attacks under control and the response by the security agencies is more coordinated.
“But in spite of these attacks we will rebuild facilities and replace damaged and lost items, the elections will hold,” Yakubu said.
