…41 facilities attacked
From AtikuSarki, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is preparing for the resumption of the Nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise scheduled on June 28, 2021 to enable Nigerians who have attained the age of 18 years and those who did not register previous exercise to do so.
Similarly, registered voters who wish to change their voting locations and those who want to correct their names and other details on the permanent voters cards (PVCs) can also do so.
The chairman of the commission, Prof. MahmoodYakubu stated this during an emergency meeting with security agencies under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Security (ICCES) in Abuja, yesterday.
He said the commission is planning to create 2, 673 registration centres and deploy 5, 346 officials for the exercise along with expensive voter enrolment machines and all these activities according to him required security.
Prof. Yakubu explained that the emergency meeting between the commission and the security Agencies was to find a lasting solution to the current challenges facing the commission.
He noted that in the last few weeks, the spate of arson and vandalisation targeting the commission’s facilities and property has become a major threat to the entire electoral process.
According to him, in the last two years, the commission has recorded a total of 41 incident involving deliberate attacks on the commission’s facilities.
Nine of these incidents he said, happened in 2019 and 21 cases was in 2021.
He said about four weeks ago, 11 offices of the commission were either set ablaze or vandalised and two of these incidents were caused by Boko Haram and bandit attacks while 10 resulted, from thuggery during election and post election violence.
He pointed out that majority of these attacks (29 out of 41) were unrelated to election or electoral activities, 18 of them occurred during the End SARS protests in October last year while II attacks were organised by unknown gunmen and hoodlums.
He also explained that the commission is assessing lost of materials during recent attacks pointing that so far the commission has lost 1, 105 ballot boxes, 694 voting cubicles, 429 electric generating sets and 13 utility vehicles (Toyota Hulux).
He therefore noted that by working together with security agencies they can stop these attacks and the destruction of electoral assets.
