Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday warned of the threat of intensifying election campaign violence just over three months before presidential and parliamentary elections, reported The BBC.
The INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu said the agency had reported 50 attacks across the country since campaigning for the upcoming elections began over a month ago.
“The commission is worried that if no urgent and decisive steps are taken, the attacks will intensify as we approach the election date,” the INEC chief said in a statement. “We need to take decisive steps to stem the ugly trend.”
Nigeria’s February 2023 election is expected to be a tight race to replace President Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari’s tenure as Nigeria’s president for two consecutive terms comes to an end in February next year.
On Thursday, the commission’s offices in Ogun and Osun States were attacked and set on fire in the southwest. As per reports, critical election materials including over 65,000 uncollected PVCs were destroyed in the fire.
“The political class plays perhaps the most critical role in ensuring peaceful elections,” Yakuba said during an emergency meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Friday.
“We must all rise to the occasion. Nigerians are watching us,” he added.
However, the Electoral Commission Chairman explained that the Commission is urgently taking steps to repair the damaged office building in Osun and replace the burnt PVCs so that the office becomes functional again immediately.
Security will be one of the key election issues in the upcoming election as Nigeria’s armed forces continue to fight jihadists in the north-eastern part of the country, armed bandit militias in northwest and central states and separatist agitators in the southeast.
Elections in Nigeria are usually held in a tense atmosphere as the they are plagued with some form of violence or fraud. The government had introduced National Peace Accord initiative during the 2015 election after post-election violence in 2011 when hundreds of people were killed. More than 55 people lost their lives in election-related incidents in 2019.
