The House of Representatives has condemned the frequent systemic arson and attacks on the personnel, offices and facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
It says the premeditated attacks is targeted at crippling the Commission and scuttling the 2023 General Elections.
The condemnation was sequel to a motion on the “Need to Condemn Attacks on Offices and Facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)” sponsored by Hon. Olarewaju Ibrahim Kunle.
“The House also noted that between February 2019 and May 2021. the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) reported at least 41 arsons carried out on the Independent National Electoral Commission facilities in fourteen States of Nigeria. Aware that on 10 November 2022, the Independent National Electoral Commission office in Abeokuta South Local Government Area of Ogun State, was set ablaze by hoodlums with not less than 65,000 uncollected PVCs razed down by the fire,” the motion said.
The House also noted that in 2019, a Single PVC was estimated to cost about #170,000.00 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 Permanent Voters Cards which were reportedly destroyed by unidentified persons at the Abeokuta South Local Government Office were destroyed.
“Worried that on the same day, Arsonists and thugs set ablaze the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) building at Oke Iresi, Ede South Local Government of Osun State. Also worried that if these systematically orchestrated attacks on personnel and facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission are not checked, the actions are capable of disrupting the 2023 general election”, it said.
The House also observed that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) guarantees democratic governance as the only acceptable and legitimate means of governance and democracy is only sustained by free, fair and credible elections, hence, an attack against elections is an attack against democratic governance and perpetrators of such attacks are enemies of the country.
It resolves to “condemn all forms of attack on the facilities and buildings of the Federal Government in country, particularly attacks on the facilities and infrastructure of the Independent National Electoral Commission; urge politicians and stakeholders to admonish their supporters to refrain from attacks and viol before or during the 2023 elections; also urge the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps and other Security Agencies such as the Department of State Services to synergies with the Attorney General of Federation and the Minster of Justice to identify, investigate, arrest and prosecute the perpetrators behind the attacks”.
It thereafter set up an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the remote and immediate cause of the incessant inferno on INEC Offices in different parts of the Country and report back within three weeks for further legislative action.
The Chairman of the House Committee on INEC, Hon. Aisha Dukku however said that the cost of producing one Permanent Voters Card, (PVC), is #550.00 naira not #170,000. 00 as contained in the motion.
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