Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Amby Uneze in Owerri
Three bandits, who were part of the gang that torched the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Owerri yesterday were promptly neutralised by the police, who also arrested two others alive with bullet wounds.
The security operatives in Imo State were also combing the nooks and crannies of Owerri for the fleeing members of the gang, believed to have escaped with gunshot wounds, when the police engaged them at the INEC office on Port Harcourt road in the early hours of yesterday.
Addressing newsmen at the Police Headquarters, where the three neutralised hoodlums and two who were captured alive were paraded, Governor Hope Uzodimma, wondered why bandits should think of attacking the INEC office at this time the commission was preparing for the upcoming elections if they were not being used.
“We need to decode the motive behind the action and why INEC is the target,” he said, adding that, what happened and events of the past, confirmed what he had always said that, “what is happening in Imo State is politically contrived, and justifiably so.”
He wondered why “some people think they can win election yet they don’t want elections to hold, how then will they win? INEC does not need this type of distraction at this point and stage of our elections, rather they should be supported by all and sundry. But contrary to that, what we now see are people creating distractions here and there and attacking innocent people.
“If now we put one and two together and recall that people have threatened that Imo State will be made ungovernable and there will be no elections in Imo State, that is the attempt to achieve their purpose.”
While assuaging the fears of Imo people, he noted that, “Since the police are prepared, and the security agencies are ready, there will be elections in Imo State by the Grace of God, “urging the Imo people to go out and collect their PVCs as the state and INEC have decentralised the team.
Briefing the governor on the activities of the bandits and how his men were able to counter and neutralise some of them, the Commissioner of Police in Imo State, Mohammad Ahmed Barde, said, “the bandits attacked the Assumpta roundabout where they burnt a Sienna bus,” and that his men “confronted them and forced them to abandon one of their vehicles and from there, they moved to attack the INEC headquarters in Owerri Imo State.”
Barde said the Police were able to neutralize three of them and arrested two alive while others escaped with bullet wounds, assuring that the Police were on trail of them.
He said they recovered three AK47 riffles, three Pump action guns and some Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) as well two vehicles from the bandits.
Also, confirming the attack, the National commissioner in charge of Publicity and Chairman Voter Education, Festus Okoye, said the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Imo State, Professor Sylvia Uchenna Agu, reported that its state headquarters office in Owerri was attacked by unknown gunmen.
The attack, Okoye said, occurred at about 3.00am yesterday, and that, the affected the part of the building occupied by the Election and Party Monitoring (EPM) Department and one official utility vehicle (a Toyota Hilux pickup van) was burnt.
He said the response of the security and emergency services (the Fire Service) curtailed further damage to the building and other assets of the Commission.
“No critical election materials were destroyed. There were also no casualties involving staff of the Commission. This is third attack on the Commission’s facilities in Imo State in less than two weeks following the earlier attacks on our Orlu LGA office on Thursday 1st December 2022 and Oru West LGA office on Sunday 4th December 2022.
“Our Imo State Headquarters is located in the centre of the Owerri, the State capital, between a court and the State secretariat. This is, therefore, yet another systematic attack targeted at the Commission’s assets across the country, more so on the day that the collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) commences nationwide ahead of the 2023 general election,” he explained.
