INEC reacts to attack on its Imo headquarters

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has spoken on the latest attack on its Imo headquarters.

Reacting to the development on Monday, the commission said no critical election materials were destroyed in the attack which happened in the early hours of Monday.

Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner and chairman, information and voter education committee, made this known in a statement on Monday.

Within Nigeria had reported that gunmen attacked the head office of INEC in Owerri, the Imo state capital, using locally-made explosives on Monday.

Police officers stationed at the office foiled the attack and three of the gunmen were said to have been killed.

According to Okoye, Sylvia Uchenna Agu, INEC resident commissioner, had reported that the head office was attacked at about 3am.

He said although the attack affected the part of the building occupied by the election and party monitoring (EPM) department, no critical election material was destroyed.

“The response of the security and emergency services (the Fire Service) curtailed further damage to the building and other assets of the Commission. No critical election materials were destroyed. There were also no casualties involving staff of the Commission,” the statement reads.

“This is third attack on the Commission’s facilities in Imo State in less than two weeks following the earlier attacks on our Orlu LGA office on Thursday 1st December 2022 and Oru West LGA office on Sunday 4th December 2022.

“Our Imo State Headqurters is located in the centre of the Owerri, the State capital, between a court and the State secretariat. This is therefore yet another systematic attack targetted at the Commission’s assets across the country, more so on the day that the collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) commences nationwide ahead of the 2023 General Election.”