2023 elections under threat as gunmen bomb INEC office, police station

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mahmood Yakubu has cried out that the continued attacks on the commission’s facilities and logistics are dangerous threats to the smooth conduct of the 2023 general elections in the country.

Yakubu clarified during a press conference in Abuja after accessing the level of effects the continued attacks on the commission’s facilities may have on the 2023 general elections.

This came on the heels of the gunmen’ vicious Wednesday morning attack on the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and a police station, in Ojoto
Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State.

A close source who spoke to newsmen said the hoodlums burnt the commission’s headquarters using Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs.

Congress gathered that the gunmen also attacked a police station in Nnobi, in the same local government area, and a residential building inside the station, where a boy was killed and a girl was injured.

However, the extent of damage to the INEC office and the police station is yet to be ascertained at press time.

The State PPRO, DSP Toochukwu Ikenga, confirmed the incidents in a press statement sent to newsmen on Wednesday.

According to him, the attack occurred at about 1:45 am on Wednesday, confirming that the attackers came in huge numbers, and we were ferried to the scenes of the incidents in four Toyota Sienna vehicles.

Ikenga noted that the command had heavily deployed security personnel around the state to forestall such attacks in other places.

He added, “Anambra State Police Command today, 1/2/2023 has reinforced security deployment in the state, following an attack on the INEC office in Idemili South, Ojoto and Nnobi Police Station.

“The hoodlums came in their numbers by 1:45 am today 1/2/2023, with four unmarked Sienna vehicles armed with IEDs, petrol bombs, and other explosives.

“They invaded the INEC office, the Police Station, and the residential building in the station. Unfortunately, one boy aged 16 years a relative of a serving policeman in the station was murdered by the armed men, while the other, a female aged 15 years old sustained a gunshot injury. She has been taken to the hospital where she is receiving treatment.”