The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has said that the 2023 general elections will hold despite several attacks on facilities belonging to the commission.
He said this to an audience during an event at Chatham House, London on Tuesday, reassuring that the commission would go ahead with the elections as scheduled.
Yakubu noted that 50 facilities belonging to the commission had been attacked in four years, and the commission would need to continue to rebuild the burnt facilities and replace materials.
He, however, assured that INEC, in collaboration with security agencies, had increased security presence in some of the attack-prone locations.
“In four years, 50 facilities (have been) attacked in various parts of the country. The implications of the attacks is that we have to rebuild facilities and replace materials. The commission and security agencies have increased their presence in some of these locations. The last attack 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 office.
“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 these attacks and we hope that authorities have these attacks under control and the response by the security agencies is more coordinated.
“But in spite of these attacks we will rebuild facilities and replace damaged and lost items, the elections will hold,” Yakubu said
