Sensitive Materials Intact At Burnt Office, Says Osun INEC

Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr Mutiu Agboke on Friday hinted that despite the attack on the commission’s office in Ede South Local Government Area of the state by arsonists, all sensitive items in the office remain intact.

Speaking in Osogbo, the commission boss, explained that, during the attack, “our security had to flee for his life because he saw those people with dangerous weapons on Okada. Nobody was able to arrest anybody. This is a holistic thing that the commission and security had to look at. This has shown us a path of consciousness that has let us know that we will not allow anything to be left behind”.

The commission said, “they have moved all the materials from the office to its office in Osogbo and that the attackers entered through the window of the conference room but the prompt response of the police had prevented wrecking more havoc and the attackers escaped the scene as the items used were recovered.

“No election materials related to the ongoing case at the tribunal were destroyed. Everything relating to the case will emanate from Abuja. It is not an issue at all.”

“The commission is trying to take administrative measures to prevent possible attack saying, “Items that we know can be vulnerable have been moved away”.

It will be recalled that the office was razed by fire by some hoodlums on Thursday morning in anticipation that, the whole office would be but to ashes but, while reacting to the incident, the resident Commissioner explained that, sensitive materials “like the Register of Voters that we intended to display on the 12th of this month, uncollected Permanent Voters Cards and many more were not affected except for furniture in the building that was affected.

Agboke who revealed that the attack was carried out around 9 A.M. of the day, disclosed that, only God knows the motive of the evil perpetrators.

He however maintained that, “we have left it for the police and security operatives to unravel the intention of these people.

“For Osun State, we have called the meeting of our electoral officers and we are going to ensure we collaborate with security agencies.

“We will continue to engage them for further engagement on the security of our property. No cause for alarm, we know that those people with sinister motives may want to carry out more attacks but security won’t allow that to repeat itself.

“There is no link between the Osun attack and Ogun. The only common thing they have is that they carried out the attack in the same pattern. Loaves of bread soaked with petrol were used for the act and there is a need to unravel people behind this attack.

“If we do not, Nigerians will be asking questions whether they are safe to vote on election day and ask if the electoral officers are safe too,” he submitted.

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