The head office of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC in Akure, Ondo state has been gutted by fire.
This comes exactly a month to the Ondo governorship election scheduled for October 10.
Voice of Liberty gathered that the inferno, which affected the ICT Unit of the commission, was noticed around 8:03 pm and destroyed over 5100 card readers meant for the election.
However, the cause of the inferno was unknown as of the time of filing this report.
Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi confirmed that men of the Fire Service were on ground to contain the fire.
“National Commissioner, Barrister Festus Okoye, who is in Ondo State in connection with preparations for the Ondo State Governorship election scheduled for 10th October 2020, rushed to the office at about 8pm.
“The Administrative Secretary of the State, Mr. Popoola and some staff of the Commission are also there.
“Barrister Okoye said investigation into the cause of the fire will commence promptly after the fire has been contained,” he added.
Men of the Fire Service are on the ground to put out the inferno which started about 8 pm and gutted the container housing Smart Card Readers, the electoral body tweeted, Thursday.
“The National Commissioner, Barrister Festus Okoye, who is in Ondo State in connection with preparations for the Ondo State Governorship election scheduled for 10th October 2020, rushed to the office at about 8 pm,” INEC added.
Although the cause of the inferno is yet to be known, Barrister Okoye assured that an investigation would be carried out to unravel what triggered the fire.