The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has quelled the fear of Nigerians over its burnt warehouse along Airport Road in Abuja, over the weekend, saying the burnt building does not house sensitive materials.
INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity Wole Osaze Uzzi, while calming Nigerians down also said that the materials damaged were not relevant to the coming elections at all and the materials were in deed reserved for destruction.
“None of the sensitive electoral materials for the presidential and National Assembly elections and the governorship and state assembly elections was affected,” Uzzi said.
In his own explanation, Shettima Ngiladar, director of security at the razzed electoral institute said the fire was as a result of an electric surge.
He assured Nigerians that it was not an attack and neither was it an attempt to sabotage the forthcoming elections.
“The fire incident started on Saturday around 11 pm and it took the firemen about two to three hours to put off the fire,” Ngiladar said. “Only remnants of materials like envelopes, bags, forms and so on from the 2011 exercise were destroyed.”
Deputy Director of Electoral Logistics at INEC, Ken Ukeagu, added that all sensitive materials required for 2015 elections have been moved to the states, corroborating Ngiladar’s words that the warehouse contained merely outdated stocks.
“You know the normal process of disposing materials take a little while. But these materials here are not useful for 2015 elections,” Ukeagu said.
“All the useful sensitive materials have been moved to the states. Even if these were materials that would have been used, there is no way it would affect the elections.”
During his visit to the incident’s site, INEC National Commissioner in charge of Electoral Logistics Col. Mohammed Hammanga, expressed happiness that materials affected were old stock.
“We are happy that it has not destroyed the materials that will be used in the election,” Hammanga said.
