INEC offices in Ogun, Osun set ablaze by hoodlums

Some hoodlums, suspected to be hoodlums, has set ablaze both the Abeokuta South Local Government’s office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) located at Iyana Mortuary in the Abeokuta metropolis, as well as INEC office in Oke-Iresi, Ede South local government area of Osun State, all on Thursday.

The hoodlums were said to have used a bread bomb to raze the office in one of the incidents.

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has summoned an emergency meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) for Friday to appraise the attacks on its local office in Abeokuta south of Ogun and Ede South of Osun states.

Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner and chairman information and voter education committee who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, said the attacks were perpetrated by unidentified hoodlums.

According to him, 904 ballot boxes, 29 voting cubicles, 30 megaphones, 57 election bags, 8 electric power generators and 65,699 uncollected Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) were destroyed in the Ogun office while only some furniture items were vandalised in Osun.

BusinessDay gathered that the hoodlums, about eight in number, had gained entrance into the Abeokuta South INEC office by jumping over the perimeter fence and set the INEC building on fire from the back, having soaked some pieces of foam mattress in petrol and thrown same onto the building at different angles to put up the INEC office in flame.

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Azeez Hamzat, security guard attached to the facility, who spoke with some journalists on Thursday in Abeokita, claimed to have made a distress call to the police around 1am to report the fire incident, and some Policemen from the Ibara Police Divisional Headquarters mobilized detectives to the scene and contacted the fire fighters, who raced to the scene to put out the fire.

Our Correspondent also gathered that the store, the Registration Area Officer’s office and the conference room were affected by the inferno, and informed source at the State INEC office told BusinessDay that non-sensitive materials were also affected by the fire, but no life was lost and no injury was sustained in the fire.

Reacting to the fire incident on phone, Niyi Ijalaye, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC in Ogun State, confirmed the fire incident, saying the incident was shocking.

“It is correct that our office was set on fire. The Police are investigating. I do not know what to say. I’m in shock myself. We called the Police and other Security Agencies at night. The Fire Brigade put the situation under control. The level of damage is still being assessed.

Confirming the fire incident in Osun, Festus Okoye, the National commissioner and chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, said the fire was limited to a section of the building and that only some furniture items were destroyed.

Okoye in a statement circulated by the Public Relations Officer of the commission in Osun, said, “the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Osun State, Mutiu Agboke, reported that our office in Ede South Local Government Area was attacked and set ablaze.

“The incident occurred in the early hours of this morning when some unidentified persons attacked the building and set a portion of it ablaze.

“Fortunately, the damage to our Ede South Local Government was limited to a section of the building and only some furniture items were destroyed.”

Okoye added the commission has informed the Nigeria Police Force and other security and safety agencies and have commenced investigation.