Fire guts INEC office in Obingwa LGA of Abia

An inferno on Sunday morning gutted the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) office in Obingwa local government area of Abia, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

The fire destroyed documents, furniture and other valuables in the office leaving only the wall of the building and remains of materials made of steel.

A witness, Mr Chinyere Akwarandu, an official of the local government council, said a corps member alerted him of the fire at 11 a.m. in his house

Akwarandu said the NYSC member, serving with the INEC, reported that their building was on fire, following which he raced to the scene.

He said that on arrival at the scene efforts were made to put out the fire, but the force of the inferno later prompted them to attempt to prevent it from extending to other buildings in the council secretariat.

“We tried what we could to stop it but it was too fierce for us. Earlier, we had called the fire service but they told us they had no diesel to drive their truck,” the witness said.

NAN reports that the Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia was among the early visitors to the council secretariat to assess the extent of damage.