HURIWA Faults Security Agencies for Failing to Secure INEC Offices

Alex Enumah in Abuja

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has berated security agencies over their failure to arrest and prosecute a single suspect in connection with the burning of offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) nationwide.

In a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko yesterday, HURIWA said President Muhammadu Buhari had not shown any readiness to bequeath free, fair, credible and peaceful elections in 2023, going by the alleged failure of the president to curb the increasing attacks on electoral offices. 

HURIWA further claimed that there “is a grand plot by some mischievous politicians to wriggle their way into elective offices by manipulating the process through the instrumentality of violence.” 

INEC’s Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu had warned that the next elections “are in danger unless the incessant attacks on the commission’s offices and facilities are quickly stopped.”

He had disclosed that the commission “now mulls renting offices to make up for its about 50 offices razed since 2019.

Also, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba Alkali attributed the attacks to the clandestine acts of some politicians and secessionist groups in the South-East and South-West while the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), said it had not received any request for the prosecution of suspects responsible for the attacks on INEC offices.

Expressing concern yesterday, Onwubiko said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari “is to be blamed for the continued attacks on INEC offices.

“The government has refused to arrest or even prosecute any of the suspected attackers let alone punish them through the courts to serve as deterrents to desperate and violent-inclined politicians.

“The government, despite its ineffective war on proliferation of light weapons, failed to stop non-state actors from moving around with sophisticated arms and weapons of mass destruction which they use to attack strategic national security assets especially in the South-East and in the North-west,” Onwubiko said.

He blamed Buhari for not sacking his National Security Adviser, the IGP, Comptroller General of Customs, Immigration,  DG DSS, DG NIA, under whose jurisdiction internal security operations ought to be made effective.

According to HURIWA, the president’s refusal to sack the head of these security agencies shows that there is a grand plot from the top to sabotage the election.

The group however urged Buhari to re-organise the security architecture to bring in persons from other parts of Nigeria in line with federal character principles, rather than the domination of the internal security institutions by Fulani Muslims from the same ethnic group with the President.

HURIWA also urged Nigerians to be vigilant and demand action from the federal government to ensure that the coming general election in about 70 days time is not actively sabotaged from within government in Abuja.