Police commissioner: Ebonyi INEC office attack was not an attack, the fire was caused by the facilit

The fire that destroyed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Iboko community, Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State on Sunday, according to new information, was not the result of a hoodlum attack, as previously speculated.
According to Track News, the state Commissioner of Police, Aliyu Garba, stated on Wednesday that the fire was started from within the facility and was never the result of a gang attack.

There was no evidence of an external attack on the INEC facility, he said, and investigations revealed that the fire started inside the office.

On Monday, Track News reported that a fire destroyed the INEC office in the Izzi local government, destroying 340 ballot boxes, 130 voting cubicles, 14 electric power generators, large water storage tanks, various office furniture and fixtures, and an unknown number of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs).

According to reports, the Ebonyi government blamed the fire on opposition parties in the state.

However, Track News learned that in a statement signed and issued by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), the state commissioner of police, Chris Anyanwu, explained that the command conducted an on-the-spot assessment and discovered that the fire originated inside the office building.

Garba observed that there was no power supply at the time of the incident, implying/suspecting that this was the likely cause.

“There was no evidence of an external attack or breakage into the building prior to the fire,” he claimed. The fire destroyed flammable items stored in the building, such as generating sets, plastic buckets/cans, ballot boxes, cubicles, and so on, and has the potential to spread the inferno.

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

“There is no firefighting equipment in the office/premises.” Some leftover PVCs locked in the steel cabinet were destroyed by the fire. The E.O. has a list of the remaining PVCs engulfed in the inferno.

“The worth of the destroyed items has yet to be determined.” The immediate cause of the incident is still unknown, and a similar incident occurred recently at the same INEC office.”

Garba urged INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and all levels of government to install solar-powered CCTV cameras and fire-fighting equipment in all INEC offices ahead of the elections to prevent such incidents.