The attack on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s headquarters office in Owerri, the capital of Imo State, on Monday did not result in the destruction of any essential election materials, according to INEC.
Festus Okoye, National Commissioner, Chairman of the Information and Voter Card Education Committee, made a statement on behalf of the Commission in which he also confirmed that no Commission employees were killed in the incident, which he claimed happened at around 3 a.m. on Monday.
According to the statement, one official utility vehicle—a Toyota Hilux pickup van—was burned in the attack, which also damaged the portion of the building used by the Election and Party Monitoring (EPM) Department.
According to INEC, this is the third attack on the organization’s Imo State facilities in less than two weeks, following assaults on its Orlu LGA office on December 1 and Oru West LGA office on December 4, respectively.
The incident, which occurred on the first day that PVCs were being collected nationwide in preparation for the 2023 general election, was described by the Commission as yet another systematic attack on its assets across the nation.
In the most recent attack on an INEC site in Imo State, four people were slain at the Commission’s offices along Port Harcourt Road, including one police officer.
Mike Abattam, a spokesman for the Imo State Police Command, reported that about 10 gunmen with petrol bombs and dynamite arrived at 3:00 am. He claimed, however, that security personnel confronted the criminals and killed three of the attackers in the process of repelling the attack.
Abattam reportedly reported that three hoodlums’ vehicles had been found and that the police had detained one of the attackers.