A section of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters has been gutted by fire.
The National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye, confirmed this to reporters on Friday in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
He revealed that the inferno affected the Department of Electoral and Party Monitoring part of the commission’s head office.
Okoye explained that the fire broke out as a result of an electrical fault at the office of the Director of Electoral and Party Monitoring located close to the Media Centre of the Commission.
He, however, said the incident has been brought under control by men of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Fire Service.
The national commissioner insisted that there was no cause for alarm, stressing that the incident was a minimal one and did not affect sensitive documents at the commission’s headquarters.
Below is Okoye’s statement:
At 11:30 am today, 17th April 2020, a tire outbreak occurred at a section of the building housing the Election and Party Monitoring Department and the Media Centre. The building is an annex, detached from the main building of the Independent National Electoral Commission‘s headquarters.
Fire fighters attached to the Commission swiftly responded to contain the inferno and they were later joined by their colleagues from the Federal Fire Service headquarters in the Federal Capital Ten’itory (FCT). The fire was extinguished within a short period of time and did not cause any substantial damage to the building.
Apart from some office furniture and equipment. nothing sensitive was destroyed. Reports of party primaries and conventions are intact. The campaign finance database is also not affected. The incident will therefore not affect the administrative or technical operations of the Commission in any way.
Meanwhile. Investigation into the cause(s) of the tire incident has commenced.
See photos from the affected part of the building below:
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