Fire Guts INEC Office Abuja

There was a minor fire outbreak at the Electoral Institute of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja on Saturday night, March 14, 2015.

No harm was done as the fire was swiftly contained, the PUNCH reports.

Confirming the incident, the Chief Press Secretary to the chairman of the commission, Mr. Kayode Idowu, said no electoral material was affected by the fire.

According to Leadership report, the fire started at 11p.m. on Saturday night and was extinguished at 2a.m. Sunday morning.

Showing newsmen  around the affected area, the director of security of INEC, Shettima Ngilladar, said the power surge caused the electrical panel to go up in flames, ruling out any political mischief, while he explained that no electoral materials for the 2015 elections was in the warehouse as they have been deployed to the state.

The INEC security chief said: “these are non-sensitive materials that have been banned in the warehouse. You will see it yourself it is not hidden. It something clear, this banned non sensitive materials have nothing to do with the elections.

“They are old materials in store that has not been evacuated. These are old stock of non sensitive materials, like bags, envelopes, election forms which were used in 2011 elections. They won’t be used for 2015 elections. Everything here is non sensitive. Police on ground and security investigation is on.”

Recall that some protesting youths under the aegis of Middle Belt Con­cerned Youths (MBCY), shut down the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja on Wednesday, March 11, 2015.

They asked for the immediate resignation or sack of INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, over his insistence on the use of card readers for the general elec­tions.