TheCable

Facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are becoming endangered, given the spate of attacks in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, two more INEC offices were razed, making it the seventh facility of the electoral commission that has come under attack in 2021.

According to checks by TheCable, the fire incidents have been largely prevalent in the south-east, except on two occasions: in Akwa Ibom and Kano states.

The most affected states are Ebonyi and Enugu, each suffering two attacks. Other affected states are Kano, Akwa Ibom and Abia.

Except for Kano where the fire incident occurred at the commission’s data processing centre, the others took place at night, and INEC believes they are more orchestrated than accidental.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE 2023 ELECTIONS?

The next round of general election is exactly one year, 39 weeks and three days from now.

But effective preparations for the elections are now in doubt, considering that most of the offices being attacked across the affected states contained important assets of the commission.

INEC had announced that the continuous voter registration ahead of the next elections will resume on June 28 — but some of the items to be used in the exercise have been destroyed in most of the attacks, which could result in a delay or change of plans.

On Monday, the commission admitted for the first time that the incidents will affect its preparations for the next general election.

Festus Okoye, INEC’s spokesperson, had said: “In relation to some of these attacks and their implications, you know at the local government level, the electoral officers serve more or less as managing-directors of our elections.

“We do not conduct elections at our INEC headquarters. It is at the base level that these elections are conducted. You also know that we just finished verification relating to expansion of voters’ access to the polling units. 

“It was at the various local government offices that these were coordinated. They coordinated the geo-referencing of the old and new polling units. If you attack our local government offices, you are attacking our capacity and capability of conducting elections.”

SECURITY AGENCIES TO THE RESCUE

Disturbed by the trend, Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, convened an emergency meeting of security agencies under the auspices of the inter-agency consultative committee on election security (ICCES).

The meeting is scheduled to hold in Abuja on Monday, after the INEC leadership meets the 37 resident electoral commissions (RECs) across the country on Wednesday.

When the meeting was announced, the electoral umpire said the attacks call for “an immediate review of the measures necessary to secure INEC’s assets across the states”.

INEC had also said it is “determined to continue to discharge its responsibilities, including the conclusion of the expansion of voters’ access to polling units, resumption of the continuous voter registration (CVR), capacity-building activities, the review of the draft strategic plan 2022-2026, engagement with stakeholders as well as all scheduled and pending elections”.

But how much can it do with little or no control over the rampant attacks on its facilities?