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ON November 10, suspected hoodlums razed the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abeokuta South Local Government Area of Ogun State, destroying critical election materials. The initial impression was that there had been a fire outbreak, but it soon emerged that it was outlaws that had in fact set fire to the facility in the early hours of the day. According to the INEC commissioner for information and voter education, Festus Okoye, over 65,000 uncollected PVCs were destroyed in the fire. Okoye said that the attackers overpowered the security personnel on duty and set the entire building ablaze.“The main building and all the commission’s movable assets in the office were destroyed. They include 904 ballot boxes, 29 voting cubicles, 30 megaphones, 57 election bags, eight electric power generators and 65,699 uncollected permanent voters cards (PVCs).”
Okoye added that one of the commission’s offices in Ede South Local Government Area of Osun State was attacked and set ablaze, and that an emergency security meeting had been called to get to the bottom of the electoral threats, although the damage was limited to a section of the building and only some furniture items were destroyed. He added that the attention of the Nigeria Police Force and other security and safety agencies had been drawn to the incidents and they had commenced investigation. According to reports, miscreants have attacked INEC offices and staff over 42 times in the last three years.
To be sure, the attacks on INEC offices are a cause for concern. Apart from creating unnecessary tension in the polity, such attacks give the impression that certain persons, probably political actors, are interested in undermining the electoral process and thus undermining the process of recruiting the new set of leaders that will pilot the affairs of the country. It is disheartening that in a country that espouses law and order, the lives of INEC staff have been, and continue to be, exposed to danger, thus impeding their mental readiness for the onerous task with which they have been saddled. Arsonists targeting offices, especially in the run up to the 2023 general elections, apparently do not mean well for the country. It is not difficult to suggest that the attacks are deliberate and perhaps designed to send messages which ought to be deconstructed by the security agencies as part of the investigation into them.
It cannot be a thing of joy that in just 33 months, more than 40 INEC offices have been attacked and vandalised with the commission reporting loss of critical property. Such property will evidently cost a fortune to replace and unfortunately, the burden is transferred to the same long-suffering Nigerians rendered economically impotent by political actors. The development should be curbed; it would not thrive if there were consequences for the perpetrators. Clearly, the government and security agencies have to increase and improve security around the commission’s offices and make them less pregnable and susceptible to vicious attacks by arsonists and vandals. In this regard, installing CCTV cameras in the offices would not be out of place. It is important for the attacks to be unravelled, not just to punish the criminals behind them according to the laws of the land, but to expose them as a deterrent to would-be criminals planning such attacks.
The government and the security agencies must up their ante and ensure that INEC is saved from the disruption that further attacks will create. This is in the interest of the country and its desire to have a well organised and hitch-free general election.
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