Imo states tops with five attacks in three years as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the weekend, released the list of states where its offices and material have been attacked by hoodlums ahead of the 2023 elections
The INEC revealed that it has suffered 50 attacks across 15 states between 2019 and 2022.
The document, tagged timeline of attacks on INEC offices between 2019 and December 12, 2022, showed that is offices in Imo state has faced attacks for 11 times, even as the Commission noted that the attacks were as a result of election-related violence, protests unrelated to elections and activities of thugs and unknown gunmen.
“The list does not include damage to facilities as a result of fire accidents, natural disasters such as flooding or rain/wind storms, the snatching/destruction of electoral materials during election, burglary and attack on election duty officials,” the document which was released by Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Lawrence Oyekanmi revealed.
In a breakdown, the document revealed that Osun took second with seven attacks, while Enugu and Akwa Ibom had five attacks apiece.According to the breakdown, Ebonyi, Cross River and Abia states had four incidents each; Anambra had two; while Ogun, Lagos, Ondo and Bayelsa states had one incident each.
Giving details, the documents said “there was one Boko Haram attack, one bandit attack, 18 attacks as a result of the #EndSARS protests, 20 attacks by unknown gunmen and hoodlums, four attacks as a result of post-election violence and six incidents as a result of thuggery during elections.”
While there were eight attacks in 2019, 22 in 2020, 12 in 2021, there have been eight attacks in 2022, explaining that “these are attacks as a result of election-related violence, protests unrelated to elections and activities of thugs and unknown gunmen.”
