Critical election materials were destroyed in the attack at the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) local government office in Ogun State.
The commission’s office was said to have been gutted by fire in the early hours of Thursday after suspected hoodlums torched the facility.
Festus Okoye, INEC’s commissioner for information and voter education, in a statement said over that 65,000 uncollected PVCs were destroyed in the fire.
Said he: “The resident electoral commissioner (REC) for Ogun state, Dr. Niyi Ijalaiye, reported that our office in Abeokuta South Local Government Area was attacked and set ablaze.
“The incident occurred around 1.15am when some unidentified persons 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 said they also received report that one of the Commission’s offices in Osun was attacked and set ablaze, and that an emergency security meeting had been called to get to the bottom of the electoral threats.
Said Okoye further: “Similarly, the resident electoral commissioner for Osun state, Dr. Mutiu Agboke, reported that our office in Ede South Local Government Area was attacked and set ablaze.
“The incident occurred in the early hours of this morning when some unidentified persons attacked the building and set a portion of it ablaze.
“Fortunately, the damage to our Ede South Local Government [office] was limited to a section of the building and only some furniture items were destroyed.
“The attention of the Nigeria Police Force and other security and safety agencies has been drawn to the incidents and they have commenced investigation”.
Okoye said, with just 106 days to the 2023 general elections when the commission had commenced the movement of materials to its offices nationwide, these simultaneous attacks were very worrisome.
He said the rising incidents of attacks on supporters of various political parties since the commencement of campaign barely two months ago and the use of hate and incendiary language by some politicians were extremely disturbing.
