50% materials deployed, burnt offices threaten polls — INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday lamented the incessant attacks on its local government offices across the country.

The commission said the attacks might cause hitches in its operations.

The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu stated these during the visit of the African Union Special Pre-Electoral Political Mission to the commission.

The PUNCH had reported that within the space of three weeks, three attacks were carried out on INEC facilities in Ogun, Osun and Ebonyi states.

Yakubu, however, re-emphasised that the commission would not be deterred by the challenges, noting that it was ready to conduct free and fair elections.

He said, “In the last three weeks, three of our local government offices were attacked in three different states across the country. The last attack happened yesterday (Sunday). Though there are no casualties, quite a number of the materials acquired and delivered for the election have been lost.

“The good thing is that so far, we can recover from all the losses but it is a source of concern which should not be allowed to continue.

“I want to assure you that yes, we may suffer little hitches here and there, but overall, the commission is required to proceed with the election and in the manner that the law requires us to do, using the deployment of technology for the purpose of accreditation and uploading of polling units’ results.”

The INEC chairman added that the commission had deployed 50% of non-sensitive materials ahead of the 2023 elections.

Yakubu said, “We are confident to say at this point, three months to the election, about 50% of non-sensitive materials have been deployed to locations. We are making good progress indeed.”

(Punch)