2023: Why attacks on INEC facilities have persisted in Nigeria - Igini

A former Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, has suggested why gunmen have continued to attack and raze facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Mr Igini spoke when he appeared as a guest on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday.

He said gunmen have continued attacks on the commission’s facilities across the country because successive Nigerian governments have failed to track perpetrators and punish them accordingly.

“The tragedy of our country is that (there have been) sustained attacks on INEC offices across the country, over the years, not just this time.

“I am worried that we have not been able to deal with this situation. Attack on the INEC office is an attack on democracy. That for several years, it has happened and we have not been able to bring anybody to book is the reason this thing has continued,” he said.

Last Sunday, a local office of the INEC was set ablaze in Ebonyi State, South-east Nigeria, by some unidentified persons. A yet-to-be-determined quantity of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) were destroyed in the attack.

PREMIUM reported that similar attacks happened on the commission’s offices in Ogun and Osun states on 10 November.

Several other offices of the INEC in different parts of the country have also been attacked in the past.

Mr Igini, a lawyer, said the failure of the governments to arrest and prosecute those behind the attacks on the INEC facilities have given the attackers an impression that “they can always get away with the attacks”.

He challenged the country’s security agencies to rise up to the task of tracking and arresting perpetrators of the attacks.

“Democracy operates and works on the understanding that all who have a role to play must do so,” he stated.

The former REC said it was improper that the attacks have been renewed a few months to the 2023 general elections.

He said the attacks by the hoodlums were intended to discourage Nigerian voters and give them an impression that the election would not hold.

He accused political elites of sponsoring the attacks to destabilise the country’s democracy.

Mr Igini urged Nigerians not to be deterred by the attacks, assuring that INEC has the capacity to reprint the PVCs razed by the attackers in various INEC offices “in matter of days”.

Mr Igini said, “INEC has the Voter Identification Numbers of all (burnt) PVCs. They (INEC) have information on the PVCs at their state head offices. If they don’t, then INEC will have all the information of the burnt PVCs at their Abuja Headquarters. INEC will produce those PVCs that have been burnt.”