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Electoral Violence Claims 1,149 Nigerians As INEC Suffers 42 Attacks

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INCE), has lost no fewer than 9,836 smart card readers in over 42 attacks on its offices and staff in three years.
Also, more than 1,149  persons, including INEC employees and security officers were killed in the three elections held in 2011, 2015 and 2019.  Ballot papers, cubicles and other materials were similarly destroyed.
Last Friday, an INEC worker identified as Anthony Nwokorie, was shot dead by gunmen while conducting the continuous voter registration in the Ihitte Uboma Local Government Area of Imo State.
A viral video showed the hoodlums forcing registrants to lie on the ground while destroying registration materials and vowing that elections would not hold in the South-East.
Following the violent assaults on its assets and staff, the electoral body has expressed fears over the 2023 elections, stating that there would be no results at polling units where violent incidents were orchestrated.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, in an interview with The Tide source on Monday, warned that no return would be made where violence was deliberately precipitated to undermine the electoral process.
Describing the attacks on the commission as regrettable, the resident electoral commissioner assured Nigerians that the body was devising strategies to protect its offices, assets and personnel ahead of the 2023 general election.
Igini, a lawyer, said it was a disgrace that the political elite prepared for elections as if going to war, noting that the election period should be a time of stock-taking and Election Day, a day for renewing the journey of the country for a new direction.
Responding to a question about what was being done to better protect INEC employees, assets, and voters, he said a risk assessment would be conducted to evaluate hazards and risks before the general election, including “mapping of persons of interests and so on,” by the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee.
Igini stated, “There are things that will be done but much of it cannot be a matter for publication. However, it is important, if we must reassure the voting public  for the commission to work with stakeholders to ensure that a speedy example is made with some people to convey the message to the public that there is zero tolerance for such hazards and that voters will not only be protected, but also seen to be protected.”
Asked if results in places that recorded violent incidents would be cancelled, the REC said, “There has to be an election first before talking of result cancellation. Where violence is orchestrated deliberately to undermine the process, there will be no return made and nothing to cancel.
“Cancellation of election results is a sensitive process that follows a step-wise statutory procedure of auditing because as I pointed out above, political actors may also foment violence for electoral purposes. If results are justifiably  cancelled, it will be such as not to reward deliberately orchestrated electoral violence.”
On whether there would be special security arrangements for electoral officials during the 2023 polls, Igini said, “If necessary,  yes; if the risk analysis requires special measures, they have to be in place for the affected area, otherwise, the commission will have to give notice as we have always done in the past that the conditions are not conducive.”
There are indications that the electoral body had lost assets estimated at billions of naira to violence carried out by thugs and other hired hoodlums.
According to INEC, over 41 attacks, excluding the one in Imo State on Friday,  have been carried out against its offices across 14 states since the 2019 general election, with the South-East recording 13 attacks.
The attacks which started in Abia on May 9 spread to Enugu and Ebonyi, with three incidents each;  Imo, with two attacks; and Anambra and Abia with one each and in Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom states.
In all, the electoral body recorded nine attacks in 2019, 21 incidents in 2020 and over 12 as of May 2021. It also lost 9,836 smart card readers, 345 ballot boxes, and 135 voting cubicles, among other assets.
For instance, on February 12, 2019, shortly before the general election, two containers loaded with 4,695 smart card readers were destroyed along with other sensitive materials in a mysterious fire at the Anambra State headquarters of INEC.
The commission estimated in its budget that each card reader cost N167, 063 while each memory card cost N6,000.
It was estimated that based on INEC’s budget for such sensitive materials, the loss incurred was about N847m which also included batteries and Secure Access Module cards.
Similarly, on September 10, 2020, just before the Ondo State governorship election, about 5,141 card readers were destroyed in a fire at the INEC head office in Akure.
Based on then budget estimates, the Akure fire was expected to have cost INEC nothing less than N900m. Weeks before the election on February 3, 2019, the INEC office in the Isiala-Ngwa South Local Government Area of Abia State was burnt down in mysterious circumstances.
In the same state, the commission’s facilities in the Arochukwu Local Government Area was vandalised in October 2020 while that of Aba South was completely burnt in December.
The electoral body’s office in Ohafia was also set ablaze on May 9, 2021, while the one in the Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom was razed on May 2, 2021. Items destroyed include 345 ballot boxes, 135 voting cubicles, megaphones, water tanks and office furniture.
On the eve of the 2019 general election, INEC’s newly constructed prototype local government office in Ibesikpo Asutan was burnt down, while two more offices in the Mkpat Enin and Eastern Obolo LGAs were also bombed.
In Ebonyi, on March 9, 2019, INEC’s Registration Area Centre at Ezza North LGA was set ablaze by hoodlums. On February 10, 2019, its office in Qua’anpan LGA was gutted by fire while ballot boxes, cubicles, PVCs and other sensitive materials were burnt. The fire was said to have been caused by negligence.

At the INEC headquarters, Abuja, the Department of Electoral and Party Monitoring was completely burnt on April 17, 2020, while in Kano, on April 20, 2021, the data processing centre was burnt along with the voter register, laserjet printers, computers, inverters and other items.
According to INEC, fire incidents were recorded in Akwa Ibom (four), Abia (three) Anambra (two), Imo (two) and in Borno, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Kano, Ondo, Plateau and Rivers states between February 2019 and May 2021.
The losses were not limited to property as no fewer than 1,149  persons, including electoral officers, police officers and voters were killed between 2011 and 2019 during post-election violence in Niger, Kaduna, Rivers, Benue and other states.
A former Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, had said 520 persons, including nine National Youth Service Corps members, died in the violence that followed the outcome of the 2011 polls won by President Goodluck Jonathan in Niger, Jigawa, Bauchi, Kano and Kaduna while hundreds were displaced.
Also, an estimated 626 persons, including one INEC worker, were killed across Nigeria in the six months between the start of the election campaign and the commencement of the 2019 general and supplementary elections, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room said.
According to the report, the North-West region recorded the highest number of deaths with 172 killed during the elections, while the North-East followed with 146 fatalities. Also, the report revealed that the South-South and North-Central had 120 and 111 fatalities, respectively.
Three INEC workers were also killed in Benue State in 2015.
Commenting on the huge human and material  losses, Igini, citing research on electoral violence, suggested the violence might have ‘electoral and quasi-electoral objectives.’
On the areas considered risky, the commissioner said the commission would be determined by pre-election analytics as presented by security agencies.
He added, “This will be determined by pre-election analytics; sometimes, some areas that appear quiet now may be evaluated as more hazardous given the intelligence on political actors and their activities.  So some factors and dimensions can alter such analytics, some of these can be moving targets as the electoral ambience changes.
“Painfully, the unhappy truth about our tragic situation is the fact that the political elite is behind so many of the worrying tendencies threatening and putting our democracy at risk.
It’s unfortunate that those who didn’t raise a finger when the journey of this country and the prospect of democracy were less certain during the long fight for democracy are the ones responsible for all these disturbing tendencies.”
He also commented on the calls for a referendum in some parts of the country.
Igini stated, “ I listened to an audio recording in circulation on social media, in which one of the people involved in the violence, is saying they want a  referendum, yet INEC is talking of an election. You can see a clear exhibition ofa lack of understanding of the issues they are agitating about and the danger of ill-informed individuals now acting as philosophers.
“Why attack the body that is solely responsible for the conduct of election and referendum in the country? The killing of the INEC employees that will conduct a referendum that you are even calling for if granted is despicable. It is only INEC that has the statutory responsibility to conduct a referendum, so why kill the staff and destroy the commission’s property? This is nothing but crass ignorance. If a referendum that this group is calling for is granted, which body will conduct it and with which materials?
He also explained security arrangements during elections.
The REC said,  “The idea of security personnel not being allowed to carry arms within polling units, during election management,  is to create an atmosphere devoid of fear; the need to avoid shooting people under the guise of what they call accidental discharge. Voters’ rights and access must not be fettered so that freely they can exercise their franchise.
“However, there is a circle of higher arm-bearing security protection around the perimeter of election venues that can be called into action if the need arises. They  ensure that armed  persons usually political thugs are restricted  from access to polling units.”
Igini also explained that the number of security agents that would be required would depend on the security assessment of specific areas.
He stated, “That (the number of security agents) will depend on the risk assessments as they affect different areas.  Given what we now see, it may be necessary for security agencies to put in additional early-warning security as well as response and recovery measures, the use of devices such as drones with control centres, among others.”

 

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Reps Constitution Review Committee Holds Zonal Hearing For Rivers, C’River, Akwa Ibom In Calabar

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In a renewed effort to deepen Nigeria’s constitutional democracy, the House of Representatives Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution has announced the commencement of its Zonal and National Public Hearings across the country.

A press statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Cross River State Governor, Mr Linus Obogo, disclosed that the Calabar Centre — designated as Centre B — will host representatives and stakeholders from Cross River, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom States.

The public hearing is scheduled to take place on Saturday, July 19, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. at the Transcorp (Metropolitan) Hotel, Calabar.

The initiative, according to the statement, is designed to promote inclusive dialogue and capture the aspirations of Nigerians from all regions.

It aims to serve as a platform for citizens to contribute meaningfully to the ongoing national efforts to refine and strengthen the country’s legal and institutional frameworks.

“Citizens, civil society groups, professional bodies, traditional rulers, and other interest blocs are invited to participate in this landmark engagement aimed at advancing a more just, equitable, and responsive Nigerian Constitution,” the statement read.

The hearing forms part of the broader review process of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and is seen as a strategic move toward fostering national unity and addressing structural legal issues within the federation.

 

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Tinubu’s Contribution To Buhari’s Presidency Marginal – Ex-SGF

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Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, has stirred fresh political controversy by dismissing claims that President Bola Tinubu was highly instrumental to former President Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence in 2015 after the merger of political parties that formed the All Progressives Congress (APC).

For the first time since 2022, when then-presidential aspirant Alhaji Bola Tinubu declared he made former President Buhari Nigeria’s President in 2015, Mr Mustapha dismissed the claims, stressing that the merger only contributed about three million votes in addition to Buhari’s existing 12 million votes in the North.

He insisted that former President Buhari’s integrity, national stature, and disciplined messaging were central to the breakthrough, not the three million votes from the merging parties, which he described as insignificant.

Speaking on the role of the merging parties, particularly President Tinubu, the leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mr Mustapha, who was the keynote speaker at the launch of the book ‘According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesman’s Experience’ authored by Mallam Garba Shehu, described the impact of the votes from other merging parties as very insignificant.

In attendance were former Head of State Yakubu Gowon, chair of the event; immediate past Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; SGF George Akume, who represented President Tinubu; PDP’s 2023 presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar; former Chief of Staff to Buhari Ibrahim Gambari; elder statesman Babagana Kingibe; former governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Chris Ngige (Anambra), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Raji Babatunde Fashola (Lagos); former ministers Solomon Dalung and Sunday Dare; former Army Chief Tukur Buratai, and Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu’s spokesman, among others.

According to Mr Mustapha, “I do not intend to stir up any controversy. The merger in 2013 was midwifed to create a Buhari presidency. Let us look at the statistics. In the 2003 election, it was the Obasanjo-Buhari presidential contest where Buhari recorded 12.7 million votes. In 2007, it came to 6.6 million, and it went back to 12.2 million in 2011.

“When we were conceptualising the merger, what would give us a headstart? Obviously, it was at the back of our consciousness that the merger with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), though it had only one state, the ACN had six states, ANPP three states, and when you sum up the total votes that we had as the presidency in 2015, the aggregate of the total votes was 15.4 million.

“So, basically, what we brought to the table after the merger outside the Buhari 12.5 million votes was three million. Before turning to that presidency, it is important to recognise the former President’s role in reshaping Nigeria’s political trajectory.

“In early 2013, as the leader of the CPC, Buhari formally requested and supported the creation of a CPC merger committee, part of a broader coalition-building process that brought together the ACN, ANPP, APGA faction, and elements of the ruling party through the breakaway ‘new PDP’ group. His endorsement and participation, along with other party leaders such as President Tinubu and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, lent credibility and direction to the merger, helping to unify disparate party factions under the banner of the APC. That coalition-building paved the way for the first democratic defeat of an incumbent ruling party in Nigeria’s history.

“President Buhari’s integrity, national stature, and disciplined messaging were central to that breakthrough. No account of President Buhari’s tenure would be complete without acknowledging the extended periods he spent on medical leave. These moments, while politically delicate, were also telling of his leadership philosophy and personality,” he said.

In his remarks, President Tinubu promised to build on the legacies of former President Buhari, stressing that “nation-building is a relay. The efforts of one administration lay the foundation for the next.

“In this regard, I acknowledge the efforts of my predecessor, President Buhari, and assure all Nigerians that the reform-oriented path he initiated will be consolidated and strengthened under this administration. Our Renewed Hope Agenda is inspired by the desire to build a resilient, just, and inclusive Nigeria—a nation that delivers dividends of democracy to all its citizens”.

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Your Lies Chasing Investors From Nigeria, Omokri Slams Obi

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Former Presidential aide, Mr Reno Omokri, has accused Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, of spreading false information about Nigeria’s debt profile, claiming it is deterring foreign investors from the country.

Speaking during an appearance on live television on Wednesday, Mr Omokri alleged that Mr Obi’s statements were misleading and damaging to the country’s economic prospects.

Mr Omokri said some investors currently operating in Nigeria were considering exiting the market due to Mr Obi’s remarks.

“That is not true. He doesn’t rile me up. I rile him up. The reason why I came here is because I’m a patriot. Peter Obi lied. You know, foreign direct investors are watching your programme, who are making investment decisions not to come to Nigeria. There are foreign investors in Nigeria that are making investment decisions to leave Nigeria because of the lie he told.

“One of the lies he told is that President Tinubu has borrowed more than the administrations of Yar’Adua, Jonathan, Buhari. That is a blatant lie”, Mr Omokri said.

To buttress his claims, Mr Omokri referenced figures from the Debt Management Office (DMO), maintaining that President Tinubu had actually reduced Nigeria’s external debt burden since assuming office.

“I have here with me data from the Debt Management Office, and Nigerians who are watching can go to DMO.com and search Debt Management Office, Nigeria State of Indebtedness 2015.

“As of 2015, Nigeria was owing a total of $63 billion. When Buhari was leaving office, Nigeria was owing $113 billion. Today, from the DMO, our debt has gone from $113 billion to $97 billion, meaning that Tinubu has reduced our debt by over $14 billion.

“We should be appreciating this man. Yet Peter Obi came here and lied to the Nigerian people. He took the debts and translated them into naira to make it look like the debts have increased”, he said.

 

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