The House of Representatives has condemned the recurring attacks on offices facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other Federal Government buildings across the country.
The House on Wednesday, also set up an Ad-hoc committee, under the leadership of Hon. Oluga Taiwo to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the incessant inferno in INEC offices in different parts of the country, with a mandate to report its findings back back within three weeks.
It also urged politicians to uphold various peace accords signed by political parties and their candidates across the country, urging the police to enforce same, as well as avoid being partisan in the provision of security for politicians.
The resolutions were sequel to a motion sponsored by Hon. Olarewaju Ibrahim Kunle who said the frequent systemic arson and attacks on the personnel, offices and facilities of INEC are targeted at crippling the commission
and scuttling the 2023 general elections.
According to the lawmaker, between February 2019 and May 2021, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) reported at least 41 arsons on INEC facilities in 14 states. “On 10 November 2022 the INEC office in Abeokuta South Local Government Area of Ogun State, was set ablaze by hoodlums with not less than 65000 uncollected PVCs razed down by the fire.
“In 2019, a single PVC was estimated to cost about N170, 000. 00 which may cost more for the commission to produce, alongside the main building, movable assets and facilities such as 904 ballot boxes, 29 voting cubicles, 30 megaphones, 57 election bags, 8 electric power generators and 65,699 uncollected PVCs which were reportedly destroyed by unidentified persons at the Abeokuta South Local Government Office”, he said.
He expressed worry that on the same day, arsonists and thugs set ablaze the INEC building at Oke Iresi, Ede South Local Government of Osun state, stressing that if these systematically orchestrated attacks on personnel and facilities of INEC are not checked, the actions are capable of disrupting the 2023 general election.
