No Sensitive Material Was Burnt in Ebonyi INEC Office, Say Police

Benjamin Nworie in Abakaliki

Ebonyi State Police Command has clarified that no sensitive material was burnt when fire gutted the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Iboko community, Izzi Local Government Area of the state.

In a statement issued by the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Chris Anyanwu, the incident was an internal fire outbreak from the office.

The police spokesman noted that the facility was not burnt by hoodlums as alleged.

Anyanwu said: “There was no sign of external attack or breakage into the building before the fire outbreak. The fire destroyed inflammable items such as generating sets, plastic buckets/cans, ballot boxes, cubicles among others kept in the building which are capable of escalating the inferno.

“There was no electric power supply at the time of the incident to infer/suspect same as a probable cause. There were no sensitive materials in the building as confirmed by the Electoral Officer in charge of the area.

“No fire-fighting tool was installed in the office/premises. Some left-over PVCs locked in the steel cabinet were destroyed by the fire, however, record of the left-over PVCs engulfed in the inferno are intact with the EO of the area.

“The value of items destroyed is yet to be ascertained. The immediate cause of the incident is also yet unravelled, and the same INEC office was engulfed in a similar circumstance some time ago.”

He, therefore, called on government at all

levels and the National Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, to install a solar-powered CCTV cameras and fire-fighting tools in all INEC offices to forestall such incidents ahead of the elections.