INEC Raises the Alarm Over Plot to Scuttle 2023 Polls

Following the rising attacks on the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) nationwide, the commission has said the acts may undermine its capacity to organise coming elections.

LEADERSHIP reports that the commissions had started preparations for the general election in 2013, but it now fears that these attacks could derail its plans.

The election management body said the attacks on its offices across the country are no longer isolated events but appear to be quite coordinated and targeted.

Yesterday, two INEC offices in Ebonyi State were set ablaze by unidentified persons, bringing the number of torched commission’s offices to 23, with six reported cases in the last two weeks.

A breakdown of the incidents showed that the most affected states include Akwa Ibom with four reported cases, three in Abia, two recorded cases in Anambra, two in Imo and two in Enugu.

Other states that witnessed fire incidents between February 2019 and May 2021 are Borno, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Kano, Ondo, Plateau and Rivers. Abuja was also affected.

Addressing an emergency meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECS) the chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, described the trends as unjustifiable aggression.

The helmsman of the commission said, unfortunately, some events in the recent past have challenged the commission and adversely affected our commitment to continue to improve the electoral process.

Yakubu said the spate of arson and vandalisation of the commission’s facilities and had become profoundly worrisome.

He said the threat, which had been on the rise since the 2019 general election, has now developed into a crisis.

“In the last three weeks or so, three of our local government offices in Essien Udim in Akwa Ibom State, Ohafia in Abia State, and Udenu in Enugu State have been set ablaze by unidentified persons.

“Last Sunday, May 16, 2021, our state office in Enugu suffered yet another arson and vandalisation during which parts of the building were ransacked and several vehicles razed. And more of our facilities are being systematically targeted and attacked. On Tuesday, May 18, 2021, two more offices in Ebonyi and Ezza north local government areas of Ebonyi State were burnt down.

“Although there were no casualties, the damage to the physical infrastructure and electoral materials was total. Nothing has been salvaged – from ballot boxes and voting cubicles to generating sets and office furniture and equipment,” he said.

He noted that the facilities of the commission are there to serve the local communities for the most fundamental aspect of democratic governance, which is elections.

Yakubu, however, said the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) would commence on June 28, 2021, adding that what is left is to finalise the newly established polling units in order to update the registration software to make them available to registrants.

He stated that the facilities of the Commission are to serve the local communities for the most fundamental aspect of democratic governance, which is elections; therefore, targeting such important national assets and repositories of electoral materials that took time and enormous resources to procure cannot be justified.

“Replacing these facilities in the prevailing economic circumstances will indeed be a tall order, thereby adversely affecting electoral services in the same communities.

“These facilities are not only limited to voting but also used for other critical electoral activities such as voter registration, the coordination of stakeholder engagements and voter education and sensitisation,” he said.

To halt the attacks, he said the commission will certainly work with the security agencies to deal with the perpetrators of the heinous crimes according to the law.

“To this end, a meeting with all the security agencies is holding on Monday 24, 2021. However, it has become imperative to call on all and sundry, particularly communities where these assets are located, to see themselves as owners and custodians of these facilities and assist the Commission in protecting them. I am glad that some of them are already doing so,” he said.

Meanwhile, the INEC chairman said the commission had conducted 28 out of 32 by-elections across the country since the 2019 general election, in addition to four end-of tenure governorship elections in Bayelsa, Edo, Kogi and Ondo states.

He said the by-elections were held in 20 states involving six senatorial districts, seven federal constituencies, 18 state constituencies and one councillorship constituency in Abaji Ward of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

“Indeed, it is now clear that the commission must reconcile itself to the fact that elections have become an all-year-round undertaking in Nigeria,” he said.

In addition to the by-elections, he said the commission successfully concluded stakeholder engagements on the expansion of voter access to polling units.

“I am glad to inform you that the option of converting existing voting points and voting point settlements into full-fledged polling units and situating them in the most agreeable locations to support increased voter access was overwhelmingly accepted by Nigerians.

“Consequently, the Commission has, in the last three weeks, concluded the actual exercise as well as the verification of the newly established polling units. In the next few days, the Commission will meet to finalise the compilation and coding of polling units and thereafter make the information public. The Commission wishes to thank all Nigerians for their support in addressing the 25-year-old problem,” he said.

On the two by-elections slated for June 19, 2021 in Sabon Gari State Constituency in Kaduna State and Gwaram Federal Constituency in Jigawa State, he said the commission will continue preparations for them while awaiting the official declaration of vacancies by the House of Representatives for the Jos North/Bassa Federal Constituency in Plateau State and Lere Federal Constituency in Kaduna State.

Furthermore, he said preparations for the Anambra State governorship election to be held on November 6, 2021 and the FCT Area Council election scheduled for February 12, 2022, will be prioritised.

“Similarly, we shall continue our early preparations for the 2023 general election. In this regard, the Commission has already established an Election Project Plan (EPP) Committee to work on the 2023 Election Plan. The idea is to complete the plan early enough and make sure that we are fully ready for the election, which is now only 640 days away,” he said.

Yakubu also hailed fantastic partnership between the commission and the communities it serves.

“These communities share with the commission the commitment of improving electoral services to Nigerians.

“They have over the years supported the Commission during all electoral activities from CVR to the conduct of polls. Some of them actually donated the land on which some of our local government offices are built. Even in the recent events of arson and vandalisation, many of them have demonstrated exceptional willingness to support the Commission.

“For instance, following the vandalisation of our offices in Osun State during the #EndSARS protests in October last year, the Ikirun community in Ifelodun local government area and two communities in Ede south local government area have offered to contribute to the repairs of the offices and promised to work with the Commission to protect them in future,” he said.

Similarly, he said, in Nnewi North in Anambra State, the community had also offered to repair the local government office destroyed during the #EndSARS protests.

“The commission does not take such partnerships for granted. I wish to thank our host communities in all parts of the country and appeal to them to continue to see INEC property as both national and local assets to be protected,” he said.

In the light of the current circumstances, and the meeting with RECs, he said he will take briefings from across the country on threats to INEC facilities and deliberate on how best to protect them.

“I believe that we can dig deep and draw from the Commission’s longstanding partnership with communities in this regard, in addition to depending on the invaluable support of our security agencies.

“Consequently, the challenges posed by these threats notwithstanding, we are still positive that we can find lasting solutions to the spate of attacks on our facilities. However, this must be done quickly to forestall disruptions to several upcoming electoral activities, particularly the CVR exercise which we plan to undertake continuously in 2,673 centres nationwide for a period of over one year involving thousands of INEC officials supported by security personnel,” he added.

Speaking with LEADERSHIP, the chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Leonard Nzenwa, said the concerns raised by INEC were valid as the capacity of INEC to conduct elections was being diminished by the attacks.

IPAC is the umbrella body of all registered political parties in Nigeria.

Nzenwa, who is also chairman of Africa Alliance Congress (AAC), said the pattern of attacks should be a worry for any institution, pointing out that they appear to be targeted and coordinated to cripple INEC facilities.

The IPAC chairman recalled that he had earlier raised an alarm over plots to attack INEC’s headquarters.

“The point is that the capacity of INEC to conduct elections is diminished on account of these attacks and burnings. So if you appreciate it from that point, we have to start looking at what can we do to stop this recurrence and put INEC on a better footing to conduct elections.

“People who are undertaking this kind of suicidal mission are helping to erode the gains of democracy that we have garnered in this country so far.”

He added that it was better to have a process where better leaders would emerge through electoral processes to manage the affairs of this country and address all the worrisome issues.

“But when they go and evade institutions that are symbols of democracy that are helping to work towards getting a better system with people who are competent and able to take over leadership in this country then they are completely destroying the country.

“In their narrow sense, they might think they are making a statement but in a larger scale, they are destroying the country,” he said.

Nzenwa noted that the consequence of these attacks would require additional funding for the electoral commission in order to recover the damage caused by the attacks.

“Of course, they have a budget and of course there might be contingencies and miscellaneous items, but the level this security crises has taken has gone beyond the wildest imagination of any planner.

“Nobody would expect that, in less than one month, about 21 INEC facilities or 12 offices have been burnt in the South East and across the country. You can never contemplate such a thing. Things have been destroyed so there has to be additional provision for that. If INEC wants to get to speed and say do elections there has to be additional budgetary allocation.”

He, however, revealed that political parties under the aegis of IPAC would hold an emergency meeting in the coming weeks over the threats posed by the attacks on INEC and its ability to conduct elections. He further gave the assurance that IPAC would not hesitate to expose any party discovered to be involved in the continuous attacks on INEC facilities.

The IPAC chairman noted that the challenge has gone beyond leaving security agencies to tackle it alone. He urged all Nigerians to be vigilant and volunteer information on how to ensure that the polity is better secured.

On his part, the national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kola Ologbondiyan, told LEADERSHIP that “INEC knows their target, and like we said before, the silence of the APC-led federal government is ominous.

“PDP didn’t hand over a country where electoral institutions were being destroyed at will. We asked the federal government to find those responsible for these attacks on our democratic institutions,” he said

… Burning Of Ebonyi INEC Offices: Gov Umahi Queries 2 Council Chairmen, Aides

Meanwhile, Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi yesterday directed the secretary to the state government and coordinating commissioner, Dr. Kenneth Ugballa, to immediately issue queries to the chairman of Ebonyi local government area, Chinyere Nwaogbaga, and her Ezza North counterpart, Dr. Nora Aloh, over the burning down of INEC offices in the two local government areas of the state.

Others to receive the queries include the commissioner for local government and chieftaincy matters, Barrister Samuel Okoronkwo, and the senior special assistant on state and local government affairs, Enekwachi Akpa.

Briefing journalist shortly after the State Executive Council meeting at the Old Executive Council Chamber, Government House, Abakaliki, the state commissioner for information and state orientation, Barr Uchenna Orji said the state government frowned at the unfortunate attack and urged the security agencies to fish out the perpetrators.

Orji stated that executive council also frowned at the inability of those to be issued the queries to nip the attack on the bud, and should answer why disciplinary action should not be taken against them for failing in their duties.

He said that every government functionary had been warned to rise against security challenges in their locality and show diligence, and that failing to do so will attract disciplinary action.

Barr Orji also revealed that the Governor Umahi effected a minor cabinet reshuffle during the executive council meeting.

According to him, the principal secretary to the governor, Clement Nweke, is to serve as the acting commissioner for housing and urban development pending when the State House of Assembly confirms his appointment while the chief of staff, Government House, Mrs. Queen Agwu, had been deployed to serve as the principal secretary to the governor.

By Leadership.