Categories: Headlines

PVCs, Others Destroyed As Hoodlums Raze INEC Office In Ebonyi

The fire incident is the latest in attacks on INEC offices across Nigeria.

 

Several Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) and other items were destroyed when some hoodlums set the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in the Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State on fire. 

“The incident occurred around 10.00 am when some unidentified persons set the entire building ablaze,” INEC’s National Commissioner & Chairman
Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said in a Sunday statement.

“Although no casualties resulted from the attack, the main building and all the movable and immovable items inside it were destroyed. These include 340 ballot boxes, 130 voting cubicles, 14 electric power generators, large water storage tanks, assorted office furniture and fixtures, and yet-to-be-determined quantities of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs).”

[READ ALSO] 2023: INEC, Security Forces Working To Tackle Threats – Hayatu-Deen

 

He said security agencies have been informed about the most recent incident and that an investigation has started.

“Sadly, this is the third attack on our local government office in less than three weeks following similar attacks on our offices in Ogun and Osun states on 10th November 2022,” Okoye said.

Election offices have been attacked recently in the country’s southeast, where separatists are seeking a breakaway state for the local Igbo people, but attacks in the southwest are rarer.

Security will be a major issue in the election with the armed forces battling an insurgency in the northeast, heavily armed criminal gangs in the northwest and central states, and separatist agitators in the southeast.

Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria has also been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, fallout from the war in Ukraine, and its worst flooding in a decade that has impacted farms and food production.

Nigerians go to the ballot box in February to vote for a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army commander who steps down after two terms in office.

Emmanuel Egobiambu

Disqus Comments Loading...
Share
Published by
Emmanuel Egobiambu

Recent Posts

Four Killed In US Stabbing Spree

Those killed included a 15-year-old girl, a 63-year-old woman and two men aged 49 and…

6 mins ago

Gabon’s Post-Coup Reform Efforts Under Fire

Mounting calls for the dialogue to be postponed or reorganised have been heard from a…

12 mins ago

Faye Officially Declared Winner Of Senegal’s Presidential Election

The announcement of the official provisional results seems to clear the way for a handover…

9 hours ago

Nigerians Deserve To Know How Abducted Kaduna Pupils Were Released – Bukarti

The security expert said the government needs to explain to Nigerians circumstances around the release…

10 hours ago

Minimum Wage: Pay FAAC Allocations Of Defaulting States To Workers, TUC Tells FG

While the TUC demanded N447,000 as the new monthly minimum wage per worker, the NLC…

11 hours ago

 Slain Soldiers’ Sacrifice Won’t Be In Vain, Justice Will Be Served — CDS 

General Musa vowed that the military will hunt down the perpetrators of the heinous act…

13 hours ago