THE Independent National Electoral Commission on Tuesday said Intelligence reports have indicated that attacks on its facilities was to ensure that the Anambra State governorship election scheduled for November 6 does not take place.

The commission, however, assured that despite the worsening security challenges and killings in the South-East, the Anambra State governorship election would go ahead as planned.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, gave this assurance during an emergency meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, held in Abuja, on Tuesday.

He said, “We wish to assure the people of Anambra State that the commission is determined to proceed with the election as scheduled.

“To underscore this determination, the commission is implementing two more activities on the timetable for the election in the next few days.”

Yakubu explained that the situation in Anambra State has deteriorated considerably since the last meeting of the inter-agency security body with INEC.

He equally expressed concerns about the damage done to the Commission’s facilities and materials across states in the zone.

“We have sourced some of these materials such as the 326 electric generators and vehicles destroyed in the attack from neighbouring States. However, should we again lose vital materials and facilities, the ongoing preparations will be adversely affected.”

He expressed the commission’s growing concerns about the safety of electoral officials, security agencies as well as voters following targeted attacks over the last couple of weeks.

Yakubu said poll officials, especially students and Youth Corps members, need assurance for their safety.

He also said, “At the same time, deployment for the election will involve the movement of huge consignments of sensitive and non-sensitive materials to the 21 Local Government Areas of the State, 326 Wards or Registration Areas and 5,720 Polling Units. That means over 6,000 locations to be protected.

“If we add that to about 26,000 officials that will be deployed for the election, we begin to appreciate the magnitude of the challenge of securing the Anambra governorship election which is only 32 days from today.

Perhaps never before in our history has the importance of election security in a governorship election been this urgent. The commission is aware that this is by no means an easy task.

In his remarks, the ICCES co-chair and National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (retd.), assured that the Federal Government was committed to the protection of lives and property of all law-abiding citizens before, during and after the elections.

The NSA who was represented by Sanusi Galadima, said, “I wish to state that Office of the National Security Adviser is working assiduously with relevant security and intelligence agencies towards arresting the foregoing ugly trend and other associated security challenges in the South-East zone and beyond.”