INEC Fire: No Sensitive Document Was Destroyed -Festus Okoye

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it did not lose any sensitive material to the fire outbreak that occurred at its headquarters on Friday.

INEC said the fire outbreak, which did not affect the main building of its headquarters, occured at a building within the premises housing the election and party monitoring department as well as the media centre of the Commission.

The electoral body stated this in a statement issued by its National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye.

“Firefighters 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.

“Apart from some office furniture and equipment, nothing sensitive was destroyed. Reports of party primaries and convention 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,” said Okoye, adding that,”investigation into the cause (s) of the fire incident has commenced.”

Meanwhile, the incident makes it the third government agency to be affected by fire in the last two weeks.

The headquarters of the Corporate Affairs Commission in Abuja had recorded a fire outbreak on Wednesday.

Last week, the office of the Accountant General of the Federation situated at the Treasury House in Abuja also recorded a fire incident.