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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has claimed that 65,699 yet-to-be collected Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) were vandalised by hoodlums who attacked two of its offices in Ogun and Osun states.
Revealing this in a statement, Thursday, November 10, the Chairman, INEC Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said that 904 ballot boxes, 29 voting cubicles, 30 megaphones, 57 election bags, and eight electric power generators were also vandalised by the urchins.
The attacks, Okoye said, occurred separately at the commission’s offices in Abeokuta South Local Government Area of Ogun State and Ede South Local Government Area of Osun State, southwest Nigeria.
According to Okoye, both incidents occurred in the early hours of Thursday, stressing that while the entire building of its Abeokuta office was set ablaze, a portion of its Ede office was burnt.
The National Commissioner said security agencies have been alerted and investigation had commenced in earnest to unravel those behind it as well as circumstances surrounding the attacks.
“With just 106 days to the 2023 General Election when the Commission has commenced the movement of materials to our offices nationwide, these simultaneous attacks are very worrisome indeed,” he said, adding that the commission has convened an emergency meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) for today, Friday, November 11, 2023 “to discuss the disturbing trend of political violence.”
“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 are extremely disturbing,” he bewailed./SHARE THIS
- Tags: Festus Okoye, INEC