TheCable

There has been a fire outbreak at the data processing centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kano state.

The incident, which occurred on Tuesday, was confirmed in a statement by Festus Okoye, national commissioner and chairman of the information and voter education committee, INEC.

According to Okoye, Riskuwa Shehu, the resident electoral commissioner in Kano, said the fire started around 10:15am, and “engulfed the DPC before it was contained by the Federal Fire Service”.

“The Staff made spirited efforts to bring the fire under control using fire extinguishers, but they were overwhelmed until the arrival of officers of the Federal Fire Service who subsequently quenched the fire,” Okoye said.

“The physical items burnt include industrial printers used for printing hard copies of the voter register, laser jet printers, Dell and Blade repositories containing soft copies of the voters’ register for the state, desktop computers, laptops for training, inverters and other accessories and fittings.

“Fortunately, all the data in the voter register for the state, as well as all other sensitive documents of the state office are backed up offsite and therefore safe. They will be recovered swiftly.”

Okoye gave the assurance that the fire outbreak will not affect INEC’s activities in the state.

He added that the incident will be investigated, and “measures will be put in place to avert future occurrence”.