According to Okoye, the attacks recorded in 2022 were systematic and coordinated to derail lNEC from conducting free, fair, credible and transparent election.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that the commission may find it difficult to conduct the 2023 elections if attacks on its facilities persist.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, stated this on Monday at a workshop on political violence and election security organised by the National Defence College in Abuja.
Okoye said the commission had recorded some reverses in states where the attacks took place, including destruction of ballot boxes and other election material, as well as permanent voter cards.
Okoye said that INEC had since 2019 recorded 50 attacks in 15 states of the federation.
According to him, the attacks recorded in 2022 were systematic and coordinated to derail lNEC from conducting free, fair, credible and transparent election.
He particularly said that the commission recorded so much losses in the attack on its office in Abeokuta South Local Government in Ogun.
Okoye, however, assured that INEC has the capacity to recover from the attacks.
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“So all these attacks that have taken place, we have the capacity to recover and we are going to recover because we are already reprinting the permanent voters cards that were lost during the inferno.
“We are also replacing the voting cubicles and ballot boxes that were lost, we are also trying to rent offices for the ones that we cannot repair.
“But if these attacks go into January and February, it may be difficult for us to recover from those attacks.
“This is because if you look at section 134 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, it has threshold that a candidate must meet before that candidate can be declared as the winner of any election.
“So we do not want these attacks to continue, we don’t want them to persist,” the INEC commissioner said.
Okoye added that the security agencies had given the assurance that they would ensure a secure and safe environment for the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
