By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Nigeria’s democracy is fast degenerating into chaos as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has confirmed yet another attack at its Owerri headquarters in the Imo state capital on Monday by unknown gunmen, bringing the number of such attacks in the last two months to three.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Barrister Festus Okoye confirmed the latest attack in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja which quoted the Imo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Professor Sylvia Uchenna Agu as also confirming the incident.
According to him the incident occurred at about 3.00am, Monday December 12, 2022 which is the date also set aside by the Commission for the distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) to registrants.
He also corrected misleading report which put casualty figures during the attack at four, stating categorically that no lives were lost in the attack and no critical election material was affected.
“The attack affected the part of the building occupied by the Election and Party Monitoring (EPM) Department and one official utility vehicle (a Toyota Hilux pickup van) was burnt.
“The response of the security and emergency services (the Fire Service) curtailed further damage to the building and other assets of the Commission. No critical election materials were destroyed. There were also no casualties involving staff of the Commission.”
“This is third attack on the Commission’s facilities in Imo State in less than two weeks following the earlier attacks on our Orlu LGA office on Thursday 1st December 2022 and Oru West LGA office on Sunday 4th December 2022″, Okoye said in the statement.
He also said the latest attack in Imo State Headqurters is worrisome considering the location of of the office at the centre of the Owerri, the State capital, between a High Court of Justice and the Imo State Secretariat both located along Owerri-Port Harcourt Highway.
Okoye said the systematic attack on its asset is another setback to preparation for the 2023 general election especially coming on a day collection of PVCs flagged off in the states.
