Yakubu: 50 INEC Facilities Attacked in Four Years

•Insists Elections will go on despite attacks

•Says INEC loyalty is to Nigerians, not political party or candidate

•Over 600,000 PVCs collected in one month in Lagos 

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Chairman of the  Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has revealed that 50 facilities of the commission were attacked in various parts of the country in the last four years.

The INEC Chairman made this disclosure Tuesday  during his address at the  Chatham House in London, but assured that despite the attacks, the elections would go on.

Yakubu said: “In four years, 50 facilities of the commission were attacked in various parts of the country. Mainly in the form of arson and vandalization. Including electoral materials and vehicles were destroyed. And sometimes these attacks even targeted staff of the commission.”

The chairman recalled that during the Continuous Voter Registration, some staff of the Commission were attacked in Imo state, resulting in injuries and death. 

He stressed that the implication of attacks was that the commission would have   to rebuild facilities and replace materials. 

Yakubu said the commission and  the security agencies  have increased their presence  in some of these locations.

His words:  “The last attack actually happened on Sunday last week, but because of the cooperation between the military and the electoral commission, we were able to respond and the damage was limited to just a section of the building in a local government. 

“The commission has repeatedly called for concerted efforts to control and check these attacks. And in December last year, the National Assembly held a public hearing on this, that authorities have these attacks under control and the response by the Security Agency is more coordinated.

“Despite these attacks, we will rebuild facilities, we will replace damaged or lost items. The election will continue.”

The electoral body noted that It had  promised Nigeria and friends of Nigeria that the 2023 general election would be free, fair and inclusive.

Yakubu said: “We have left no stone unturned in preparing despite several challenges. But all elections, especially those involved in the type of extensive national deployment that we do in Nigeria will naturally come with challenges.

“We have worked closely with stakeholders and development partners to confront these challenges. We are satisfied with our preparations so far. Our commission does not take the pledge that we have repeatedly made for Nigerians lightly. We’re living no stone unturned in our preparations and our commitment remains only to Nigerians, and  not any political party or any candidate.

“Our commitment and loyalty is to Nigeria and the Nigerian people, only the vote they cast will determine who becomes what. It is not in our hands, it is in the hands of citizens. This is what the law requires of us.

“We cherish our institutional independence and the integrity of the commission and with the enthusiasm of Nigerians the goodwill of stakeholders and partners and the commitment of the commission. We believe that the 2023 general election will be among the best conducted in.”

Speaking further, the Chairman assured that the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) would work perfectly during the elections.

The chairman stressed, “We are confident and this is what we have done and we completed this earlier this week. We have the machines for the 2023 general election, but we didn’t want to take chances. Each and every machine has been tested and confirmed that the machine is functional. 

“So actually, for the last two weeks or so our officials who are in all the states of the federation tested those machines and the functionality of the machines is simply very encouraging. So we’re not taking chances. 

“The second thing we are going to do and pretty soon is to conduct mock accreditation exercises nationwide ahead of the election. We don’t wait until the midterm election comes. We’ll test the integrity of these machines with real life voters.”

Yakubu further revealed that over 600, 000 Permanent Voter Cards  (PVCs)  have  been collected in Lagos  state in the last one month.

He further assured that allegations of discriminatory issuance of PVCs was being investigated by the commission, while also insisting that there won’t be collection of PVCs  by proxy.

Yakubu said has done in 2015 and 2019 elections, the electoral body would make use of its policy and framework that would allow over 2 million   internally displaced persons to vote.

“We have over 2 million persons in displaced camps in Nigeria, across a number of states. And we’ll organize elections for them the same way as we did in  2015,  2019 and will do so in 2023,” he added..

The chairman further explained that vote buying was on the increase because the sanctity of the country’s electoral process has improved.

According to him, On vote buying, It is also an indication of the progress that we’re making in our democracy. Because it is becoming increasingly clear to everyone that the votes are counted. 

He, therefore, appealed to the National Assembly to speedily pass the Electoral Offences Commission Bill to ensure that violators of the law are penalised.

Yakubu stressed: “So let me say the opportunity to renew our appeal as a commission for the National Assembly in Nigeria to speedily pass the electoral Commission’s offices commission so that all violators of our laws shall be penalized accordingly.”

He said as it stands, INEC has the power to prosecute, but there are constraints because the commission cannot effect  arrests or successfully conduct investigations that would provide the evidence that will lead to successful prosecution.

“The good thing is that the Senate in Nigeria has passed the bill. But it’s awaiting concurrence by the House of Representatives. So we hope that the National Assembly will do the needful by passing that law, and that law should be assented to speedily before the end of the lifespan of the present assembly,” Yakubu said.

The commission reiterated that it has prepared for the possibility of a run-off election, should the need arise.