Reps to FG: Protect INEC offices, facilities, from attacks

The House of Representatives has called on the Federal Government to provide sufficient security in all offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) nationwide.

The House also instructed the House Committees on Electoral Matters and Interior to find out compliance level to fire safety regulations and “investigate the root causes of destruction and fire outbreaks in INEC offices across the country and report within four weeks for further legislative action.”

This was a follow-up to the agreed adoption of a motion moved by a member of the House, Dachung Bagos, at the plenary on Tuesday, entitled, ‘Call to Prevent Further Attacks on the Offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission Nationwide’.

Bagos said, “The House notes the increased attacks on the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission across the country and the most affected states include Akwa Ibom, Abia, Anambra, Imo, Borno, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Kano, Ondo, Plateau, Rivers and the Federal Capital Territory, with about eleven of the offices burnt down by hoodlums.

“The House is worried that in the past 24 months, at least 19 INEC offices have been gutted by fire with a ratio of one INEC office per month.

“The House is concerned that if nothing is done to forestall future occurrences; there will not be adequate INEC offices to coordinate the 2023 and off-season elections in Nigeria.

“The House is also concerned that no one has been arrested and prosecuted for the criminal acts.”

As indicated by the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, raging hoodlums had destroyed no less than 11 offices, 13 vehicles, 429 generators, others in over 41 attacks in the last few months.

They had also killed policemen, soldiers and destroyed dozens of police stations, prisons, and other infrastructure of the state in the South-East and in the South-South.