The Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja was on Friday razed by fire.
The Nation reports that the affected section, the Election and Party Monitoring Department (EPM), was completely burnt by the inferno that started at about 11 am.
However, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Voters’ Education and Information, Festus Okoye, said that no critical document was lost in the fire except computers and photocopying machines.
He disclosed that some documents relating to political parties were burnt but the important ones were stored in fireproof cabinets.
According to him: “the fire started around 11 am, it was at the Media Centre outside the INEC Headquarters, the Headquarters is intact, there is no cause for alarm. The main documents relating to our monitoring of political parties are still intact, they have been moved out before the fire. What you have here are just correspondences. But we have lost public properties and our working equipment We are still trying to find out what happened”.
Controller Braimoh Mommoh, in charge of Federal Fire Service, Abuja Command, said he was called that there was fire at the INEC Headquarters.
He said that the level of damage was minimal due to the efforts of the firemen “otherwise the whole house would have been razed down”.
Mommoh said investigations are on to unravel the cause of the fire, adding that critical analysis will be done.
The Nation recalls Treasury House in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Headquarters of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) were burnt recently under controversial circumstances.
