'INEC won't succumb to security threats'

• Published date: 18 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, has said despite the violence in various parts of the country, the general election will proceed as planned.

Yakubu, who said this while delivering a speech at Chatham House in London yesterday, assured there is no plan to postpone the election.

He said INEC was working with security agencies and other stakeholders to establish mechanisms to understand, track and mitigate the security challenges.

Yakubu said: 'We are working collaboratively in the context of ICCES, and we also have the Election Violence Mitigation and Advocacy Tool (EVMAT), which is a research and diagnostic tool for predicting and mitigating election violence, prior to elections.

'In addition, there is the Election Risk Management Tool (ERM), which tracks and reports general risks to elections.

'In all, we feel assured by the actions we have taken and our collaboration with the security agencies. The 2023 general election will proceed as planned. There is no plan to postpone the election.'

Yakubu, however, said violence and threats of violence in parts of the country are challenges to credible elections.

The insecurity experienced in various parts of the country was making it difficult to deploy election materials to those areas.

He said this was particularly in areas where the attacks were targeted at the electoral process and participants.

Yakubu said the nation has experienced many years of insecurity, which began in the Northeast where there have been Boko Haram attacks.

He said this had escalated to other parts of the country.

Yakubu added: 'In the Northwest and the Northcentral, banditry, terrorism and the herder-farmer conflicts remain major challenges. In the Southsouth, the threat of renewed insurgency by groups demanding more share of petroleum revenue to the Niger Delta continues to simmer.

'In the Southwest, although an earlier surge by a group demanding independence for the region has considerably dissipated, recent violent attacks on places of worship, rise in the activities of violent cults and kidnapping groups, as well as a history of violence involving groups seeking to control markets and motor parks, remain strong.

'In the Southeast, the lingering agitation for separatism championed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) pose a major security threat. Not only have violent attacks by a number of armed groups increased, the long-standing weekly lockdown of the five states in that geo-political...