No fewer than 340 ballot boxes were part of the critical items destroyed as some unknown assailants set ablaze the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in Izzi Local Government Area office located at Iboko.
Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.
Announcing the incident, Okoye said: “The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Ebonyi State, Mrs Onyeka Pauline Ugochi, reported that our Izzi Local Government Area office located in Iboko, was set ablaze this morning.”
According to him, “The incident occurred around 10.00am when some unidentified persons set the entire building ablaze.
“Although no casualties resulted from the attack, the main building and all the movable and immovable items inside it were destroyed. These include 340 ballot boxes, 130 voting cubicles, 14 electric power generators, large water storage tanks, assorted office furniture and fixtures and yet to be determined quantities of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs),” Okoye said.
He revealed further that the Commission had drawn the attention of the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies to the incident.They have also commenced investigation, he said.
“Sadly, this is the third attack on our Local Government office in less than three weeks following similar attacks on our offices in Ogun and Osun States on 10th November 2022,” Okoye concludes.