Ondo: INEC Office Razed, 5,000 Card Readers Destroyed |The Source

By Ayodele Oni, Akure

A store housing card readers for the October 10 Governorship election in Ondo state, at the office of Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) was razed by fire late Thursday evening.

This is coming less than 30 days to the October 10 Governorship Election.

First hand information revealed that not less than 5,000 card readers, office equipment and forms for the election were razed by the fire.

It was gathered that the fire started around 8.00 pm, after majority of the work force had closed for the day’s job at the large containers’ compartment housing the card readers and other election materials.

Fire fighters, whose office is less than five minutes drive to the Alagbaka office of INEC, were watching helplessly as they lacked equipment to curtail the fire.

The National Commissioner, in charge of Information and Voters Education, Chief Festus Okoye, who has been in Akure for other official engagements and the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Rufus Akeju, described the incident as mysterious, and a setback for the election, which is a month away from now.

They however assured that it will not affect the poll as efforts would be made to replace those items that were destroyed immediately.