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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that it has suffered 50 attacks across 15 states in three years.
It lamented that such incidents in Imo State currently top the list with 11 attacks between 2019 and 2022.
Tagged timeline of attacks on INEC offices between 2019 and December 12, 2022, the commission noted that the attacks were a result of election-related violence, protests unrelated to elections and activities of thugs and unknown gunmen.
“The list does not include damages 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 statistics contained in the document released by Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the INEC Chairman read.
Giving more 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.
The documents also gave more information on the type of incidents, disclosing that; “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 right attacks in 2019, 22 in 2020, 12 in 2021, there have been eight attacks in 2022, explaining; “these are attacks as a result of election-related violence, protests unrelated to elections and activities of thugs and unknown gunmen,” the document revealed.
