In the final phase of the preparations for the Saturday, March 9 governorship and state House of Assembly elections, mysterious fire razed the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, at Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State. The cause of the fire is was still unknown at the time of this report
The fire incident was said to have occurred at about 2.00am on Friday. Few card readers were said to be burnt, while others are unaffected.
However, other sensitive materials, including ballot papers and result sheets were rescued by men of the Nigerian Police Force on duty.
Similar fire incident had occurred in Anambra State and a local government in Plateau State few days to the Presidential and National Assembly elections. INEC was, however, able to respond with speed in replacing the burnt electoral materials to ensure elections held in the affected places.