LAGOS, Nigeria — A local office of Nigeria’s electoral body INEC has been set partially
ablaze, the commission said Friday, the latest violence less than three months
ahead of next year’s presidential ballot.
Nigerians in
February will elect a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is stepping
down after two terms in office.
Concerns have grown
over recent attacks on the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), particularly in the southeast.
INEC spokesman
Festus Okoye said the commission’s office for Orlu area in Imo state was
attacked.
He said the
incident occurred on Thursday when the building, which was under repair
following an earlier attack, was vandalized and partially set ablaze.
“This is one attack
too many. The commission once again expresses its concern over the spate of
attacks on its facilities,” Okoye said.
Thursday’s incident
came less than a week after an INEC office and voting materials were torched in
Ebonyi state.
INEC has recently
warned of the threat of intensifying campaign violence ahead of the election,
adding that it had tracked at least 50 attacks in the last two months.
Parliamentary and
state elections will also be held in February.
Although no group claimed responsibility for the
attack, southeast Nigeria has seen scores of assaults blamed on the outlawed
separatists, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group or its armed wing, the
Eastern Security Network.
IPOB, which seeks a
separate state for ethnic Igbo people in the southeast, has repeatedly denied
responsibility for the violence.
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