ABUJA — President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to give whatever it will take to secure future elections in the country, despite the recent attacks on the facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in some parts of Nigeria.
President Buhari made the vow on Tuesday after receiving a briefing from the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, on the series of attacks on INEC Facilities.
Buhari said his administration would invest more in the electoral body to ensure that no election fails and assured that he would not want to give his traducers the impression that he has a motive to stay beyond his term in office.
In a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, Buhari said he would ensure INEC was able to carry out its duties “so that no one would say we don’t want to go, or that we want a third term. There will be no excuse for failure. We’ll meet all INEC’s demands”.
He then warned those with a stone heart to destroy the country by promoting insurrection and burning down critical national assets that a rude shock awaited them and it was very soon.
“I receive daily security reports on the attacks, and it is very clear that those behind them want this administration to fail,” Buhari said.
“Insecurity in Nigeria is now mentioned all over the world. All the people who want power, whoever they are, you wonder what they want. Whoever wants the destruction of the system will soon have the shock of their lives. We’ve given them enough time,” he reiterated.
President Buhari recalled that he visited the 36 states of the Federation before the 2019 elections “and the majority of the people believed me, and the election proved it.”
He then promised to continue to govern the country in line with the provisions of the constitution.
He maintained that those misbehaving in certain parts of the country were oblivious to the travails and loss of lives that resulted from the Civil War.
“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand. We are going to be very hard sooner than later,” the President said.
The President said the Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police have been changed, “and we will demand security from them.”
In his briefing, Prof Yakubu said that so far, there have been 42 cases of attacks on INEC offices nationwide since the last General Elections.
“The 42 incidents so far occurred in 14 states of the Federation for a variety of reasons….Most of the attacks happened in the last seven months, and they are unrelated to protest against previous elections.
“From the pattern and frequency of the most recent attacks, they appear to be targeted at future elections. The intention is to incapacitate the Commission, undermine the nation’s democracy and precipitate a national crisis,” Yakubu said.
