Posted by Aliyu Garba, the commissioner of police for the Ebonyi State, claimed on Wednesday that hoodlums had never attacked the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, office in the Iboko community of the Izzi Local Government Area, which was completely destroyed by fire.
The Commissioner stated that the fire originated inside the office and not from an outside attack on the INEC site.
According to DAILY POST, opposition parties are to blame for razing the aforementioned INEC office, which is situated in the Izzi LGA, by 60%.
This information was provided by Aliyu in a statement that she issued to reporters in Abakaliki via the PPRO, Chris Anyanwu.
He claimed that after conducting an immediate assessment, the leadership determined that the fire was coming from the office building.
He stated: “Before the fire started, there was no indication of an outside attack or break-in into the structure. The fire destroyed flammable items that were kept in the building and could have caused the inferno to spread, such as generator sets, plastic buckets and cans, ballot boxes, cubicles, etc.
“At the time of the incident, there was no electric power supply, so we can infer/suspect that this was a probable cause. The Electoral Officer in charge of the region confirmed that there were no sensitive goods inside the premises.
“The office/premises were not equipped with firefighting equipment. The fire destroyed some extra PVCs that were sealed within the steel cabinet. The E.O. of the area has a complete record of the leftover PVCs consumed by the inferno.
The value of the items that were destroyed has not yet been determined. The initial reason of the occurrence is yet unknown, but a similar situation occurred at the same INEC office in the past, he said.
The Commissioner, however, called on the government at all levels and the national chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to install solar-powered CCTV cameras and fire-fighting tools in all INEC offices to forestall such incidents ahead of the elections.