Over 5100 card readers which were meant for the October 10 governorship election in Nigeria’s Ondo state have been destroyed as fire, on Thursday, September 10, gutted the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) office in the state.
The fire outbreak which started on Thursday night at the ICT unit of the Commission, raged for over five hours.
The Inferno was said to have started around 8:30 pm.
With the cause of the outbreak unknown, men of the fire service were yet to arrive at the scene.
INEC Commissioner in Charge of Information and Voters’ Education, Festus Okoye, told newsmen at the scene of the incident, that the fire affected the ICT section of the commission, saying over 5100 card readers had been burnt.
The Ondo State Fire Service is less 500 meters away from the Commission.
The Commission is situated in Alagbaka area of Akure, the state capital.
The governorship election in the state is scheduled for October 10 this year, exactly one month to from the day the fire raged.
This is not the fire time, the office elwctoral umpires in Nigeria would be razed by fire few days to elections.
On February 12, 2019, a container loaded with some materials for the general elections was burst into ashes at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Anambra headquarters. Awka.
The container was said to be loaded with smartcard readers meant for the then general elections.
Fire also, in few days to the May 12, chairmanship and counsellorship elections in the 23 local government areas of Kaduna state, gutted the headquarters of Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (KADSIECOM) located along Sokoto Road in the state, destroying part of the two-storey building – affecting the finance and legal departments.
