Nigeria’s electoral agency, the Independent National Electoral Commission through its chairman Yakubu Mahmoud, has continued to assure Nigerians of the credibility and readiness of his agency to conduct the polls credibly. This tape has been replayed over and over again.

Speaking at a meeting of Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) ahead of Saturday elections, he assured that the commission would improve on its performance from the previous election.

“A total of 1,082 candidates will be elected by citizens across the country. Learning from the experience of the Presidential and National Assembly elections held two weeks ago, the Commission has effectively tackled the challenge of logistics,’’ he said.

Mahmoud makes these statements assuming an ideal situation. However, his bigger headache should be his inability to control what happens on the field of play that is being disrupted by thugs, bandits and frankly speaking security operatives who are no different. One would have thought that security agents were meant to defend the integrity of the polls.

Already, less than 48 hours to the polls in Akwa Ibom – one of the 29 states holding elections today – an office of the commission has been burnt down with electoral materials including card readers. (INEC says the materials have all been replaced)

Another instance has been recorded in Benue where thugs have burnt down the “entire materials” needed for the conduct of the polls in one of the wards in the state.

Besides these incidents, there has been a siege over certain states in the country where voters are scared to come out to exercise their electoral franchise. Armed military men have reportedly invaded homes of politicians belonging to the national opposition party, PDP in Rivers and Taraba states and the list goes on and on.

Even Prof. Mahmoud admits these concerns.

“The commission is concerned that many of our materials, including ballot boxes, voting cubicles, voters’ registers, and smart cards, were lost to the act of hooliganism and thuggery in the elections held two weeks ago. Most worrisome is the attack on electoral officials. Some of our staff were abducted and taken hostage in an attempt to disrupt elections or influence the outcome.”

The truth is that INEC can talk all it wants but frankly they cannot bite in a field of play that has been hijacked by desperate and roguish politicians.