The Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC has confirmed a fire incident which gutted a section of of its headquarters in Abuja Friday morning.
National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye who confirmed the incident in a statement said it affected “
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.”
Okoye said, “at 11.30am today, 17th April 2020, a fire 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.
He added that “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 Territory (FCT). The fire was extinguished within a short period of time and did not cause any substantial damage to the building.
The statement further revealed that “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, Okoye said investigation into the cause(s) of the fire incident has commenced.
