The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has allay fears that Friday’s fire incident at its headquarters in Abuja would affect the administrative or technical operations of the commission.
The commission’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, in a statement on Friday in Abuja, said the fire did not cause any substantial damage to the building.
Mr Okoye disclosed that at 11.30 am on Friday, a fire outbreak occurred at a section of the building housing the Election and Party Monitoring Department and the Media Centre, adding that the building is an annex, detached from the main building of the INEC’s headquarters.
Fire fighters attached to the Commission he said swiftly responded to put out the fire and were later joined by their colleagues from the Federal Fire Service headquarters in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Mr Okoye revealed that apart from some office furniture and equipment, nothing sensitive was destroyed noting that reports of party primaries and conventions were intact.
Meanwhile, Mr Okoye has said that investigation into the cause of the fire incident had begun.
The fire incident at the INEC headquarters comes days after the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Corporate Affairs Commission CAC were also gutted by fire.