Bearly a day to Governorship and House of Assembly election, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Office located at Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, early hours yesterday, Friday, 8th March 2019 engulf with fire.

According to the information, the cause of the fire is not known.

To confirmed the incident, INEC Nigeria release a press statement that read;

FIRE INCIDENT IN AKWA IBOM STATE

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) wishes to inform the public with regret of yet another fire incident, this time its office in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, which occured in the early hours of today, Friday, 8th March 2019. While we do not at this point know the cause of the fire, a report has been made to the law enforcement agencies and the Fire Service. We are liasing closely with both agencies to investigate and ascertain the cause of the fire and if found to be a delibrate act, we wil ensure diligent and vigorous prosecution of those responsible. Several sensitive and non-sensitive materials for tomorrow’s Governorship and State House of Assembly elections were destroyed including 198 Smart Card Readers, the printed Register of Voters, 13 Generator sets, as well as several Voting Cubicles and office equipment. Fortunately, the ballot papers and result sheets for the elections were not affeceted and are intact. Acting timeously, the Commission has been able to replace and reconfigure all the destroyed Smart Card Readers and reprinted the Register of Voters. With the replacement and the salvage of other items, we are pleased to announce that the election will proceed as scheduled. All registered voters in the Local Government Area are therefore requested to turn up to cast their votes between 8am and 2pm tomorrow.