Fire guts Ebonyi INEC office

The office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Iboko, Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State has been gutted by fire.

As revealed by the National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, the incident occurred on Sunday morning.

He said the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Ebonyi State, Mrs Onyeka Pauline Ugochi, reported that that the incident occurred around 10.00am when some unidentified persons set the entire building ablaze.

According to him, although no casualties resulted from the attack, the main building and all the movable and immovable items inside it were destroyed.

“These include 340 ballot boxes, 130 voting cubicles, 14 electric power generators, large water storage tanks, assorted office furniture and fixtures and yet to be determined quantities of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs),” Okoye said.

He lamented that this is the third attack on INEC Local Government office in less than three weeks following similar attacks on the commission’s offices in Ogun and Osun states on 10th November 2022.

 He said that the attention of the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies has been drawn to the incident and have commenced investigation.