The African Action Congress, Ondo State Chapter, has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a thorough investigation into the recent fire outbreak at the commission’s office in Ondo State.
The fire outbreak at INEC’s office on Thursday night burnt about 5,000 smart card readers meant to be used for the October 10 governorship election in the state.
Reacting to the incidence, the AAC berated the electoral commission “on the poor management of multimillion naira facilities of the Nigerian people in their care”, adding that INEC must ensure the governorship election was free, fair and credible.
“How will INEC justify as mere coincidence that materials of such value and importance in the election, which is peculiar to the credibility of votes, got conflagated just a month to the governorship election, despite the fact that the materials have been at the location for a period of time,” the AAC questioned.
PHOTONEWS: Over 5000 Card Readers Lost In Mysterious Fire Outbreak At Ondo @INECnigeria Office Less Than A Month To Election | Sahara Reporters https://t.co/EA2tQmWgpw#OndoDecides2020 #Ondo2020 pic.twitter.com/ZL4GKO34PR
— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) September 10, 2020
Calling for an investigation into the inferno, the AAC demanded that INEC must make public the result of their findings.
The party also challenged the commission to not only publish but reveal the names of owners of uncollected Permanent Voter’s Card in the state.
It said, “INEC must conduct a thorough investigation on the immediate cause of the inferno, make their findings public, punish whosoever is fingered in the dastardly act and put in place measure to avoid a future occurrence.
“INEC must immediately publish the names of uncollected Voters card for the public, it is not enough to just assert that some numbers of PVC have not been collected, INEC must take a step forward to publish their names.”
