Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed said on Tuesday that the 2023 elections will go ahead as planned.

Mohammed said this in Abuja in the 17th edition of the President’s scorecard series, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retired) from 2015 to 2023.

The minister’s assurance came in the wake of killings allegedly carried out by the Eastern Security Network, the militant wing of the banned Biafra Indigenous Peoples and banditry in the North West.

According to the Independent National Election Commission, more than 41 attacks have been carried out against its offices in 14 states since the 2019 general election, with the southeast recording 13 attacks.

The attacks that started in Abia on May 9, 2021 spread to Enugu and Ebonyi, with three incidents each; Imo, with two attacks; Anambra and Abia with one each and in the states of Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom.

In addition, INEC on Monday raised the alarm about the growing security situation across the country and its impact on the 2023 general elections.

INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, speaking at the validation of election security training resources in Abuja, noted that the upcoming elections face a serious threat of cancellation if insecurity across the country does not improve.

Yakubu, represented by the Chairman of the Board of the Electoral Institute, Abdullahi Zuru, explained that “if insecurity is not monitored and decisively addressed, it could ultimately culminate in the cancellation and/or postponement of elections in enough constituencies to prevent the declaration of elections. results and precipitate the constitutional crisis.

Mohammed, however, said that the Federal Government is aware that INEC is working with security agencies to ensure that the elections are carried out successfully throughout the country.

He said: “Let me take this opportunity to respond to media inquiries about a widely circulated report, credited to an INEC official that the 2023 general election faces a serious threat of cancellation due to insecurity.

“The position of the Federal Government remains that the 2023 elections will take place as planned. Nothing has happened to change that position. We are aware that INEC is working with security agencies to ensure that the elections are carried out successfully throughout the country.

“Security agencies have also continued to reassure Nigerians that they are working tirelessly to ensure that the elections take place in a peaceful environment. Therefore, there is no cause for alarm.”