Fire Razes Imo INEC Office

Barely a week to the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections, fire has razedthe offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at Nworie-Ubi in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State.

The incident, which occurred early morning on Sunday and destroyed documents, including voting materials, was said to have been caused by unknown persons.

An eye witness said that the incident started around midnight while efforts by firemen from Owerri, to put out the inferno, failed as the entire building was burnt to ashes.

According to the eye-witness the over grown weeds and bushes within the premises, fuelled the fire to wreak havoc on the building.

Commissioner of Police, Imo State, CP Austin Evbakhavbokun, who confirmed the incident, however, attributed the cause of the fire to a spark from a generator.

He said: “An operator left his generator on around midnight, from where the building caught fire with about five cans of fuel kept around the building”.

While describing the incident as unfortunate, he said that already the suspected generator operator had been arrested by the Police.

Effort made to contact the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Gabriel Ada, failed as calls to his mobile phone were not answered.