Less than a month to the state governorship elections in the south-west state of Ondo in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that over 5,000 card readers have been destroyed in a fire at its office in the state’s capital of Akure where it was preparing for the conduct of the poll.
The fire, which started on Thursday according to the Punch, gutted a large container warehouse containing smart card readers and other materials intended for the elections before firefighters could do anything about it, after arriving at the scene two hours after the outbreak started.
Addressing members of the press, the Chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said the destruction of the card readers will not affect the election, scheduled for October 10.
“It is unfortunate that we lost so many card readers but the incident would not in any way affect the conduct of the election,” he said, adding that the Commission was confident that the elections will remain on track despite the damage caused by the fire.
While the cause of the fire remains unknown, Okoye, also announced that a prompt investigation will commence, to determine the cause of the fire after the unfortunate incident has been contained.
This is the second fire incident the election coordinator in Nigeria has experienced this year and one of many questionable fire incidents that has destroyed election materials over the last few years leading up to key elections ranging from governorship polls to presidential polls.
A section of the building housing the Election and Party Monitoring Department and the Media Centre at the commission’s head office in Abuja was also gutted by fire in April 2020 but did not cause any substantial damage.
Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police in Ondo State, Mr Bolaji Salami, has also said that 30,000 officers will be drafted to the 18 local government areas of the state to ensure a hitch-free exercise, supporting the 17,000 ad hoc staff provided by INEC.
This story is part of our new series on Nigeria where we analyse electoral reform in the country ahead of the next general elections in 2023.
