ABUJA – The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has witnessed another sad and unpleasant report as one of its offices in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State was set ablaze on Sunday, 9th May, 2021.
This was contained in a Press release signed by Barrister Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner & Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee.

According to Barrister Okoye, the incident occurred late on Sunday night, 9th May 2021. He noted that there are no casualties on the part of the Commission staff who were on guard duty but the building was completely destroyed.
The matter has been reported to the police for further investigation.

It will be recalled that only last week, the Commission reported an attack on its office in Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State and expressed anxiety about the impact of such attacks on electoral activities, including the ongoing expansion of voter access to Polling Units, resumption of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), pending bye-elections, end-of-tenure elections and ultimately the 2023 General Election.

The Commission also noted that this latest incident in Abia State is one too many. “This is not the first attack on the Commission’s facilities in the State in recent times. Five months ago on 13th December 2020, the INEC LGA office in Aba South was completely burnt down while that of Arochukwu LGA was vandalised and ransacked in October 2020. These facilities are national assets, which must be protected”.

Accordingly, the Commission is convening an emergency meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) next week to discuss this disturbing trend.

Meanwhile, the Commission assured Nigerians that all activities in relation to the ongoing expansion of voter access to Polling Units and preparations for the resumption of CVR as well as all scheduled elections will proceed as planned.