2023: Thugs set INEC office ablaze

<p><strong>Some suspected thugs&comma; in the early hours of Thursday&comma; burnt an office of the <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;Openlife&period;ng">Independent National Electoral Commission<&sol;a> at Iyana Mortuary lll in Abeokuta&comma; the Ogun State capital &period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The thugs numbering about eight reportedly scaled the perimeter fence&comma; jumped into the premises and set the INEC building on fire from the back&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was gathered that the hoodlums after invading the premises&comma; soaked loaves of bread with petrol and threw same into the building at different angles to light up the INEC office&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was further gathered that a security guard at the facility identified as Azeez Hamzat&comma; had made a distress call to the police around 1am alerting them on the fire incident&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The police from Ibara division reportedly mobilised detectives to the scene and later contacted men of fire service in the state &comma; who raced to the scene to put out the fire&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When contacted&comma; the Ogun INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner&comma; Niyi Ijalaye confirmed the incident&comma; describing it as shocking&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;2023-court-sacks-labour-party-governorship-candidate-photo&sol;">Court Sacks Labour Party Governorship Candidate <&sol;a><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The REC said the situation was still being assessed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It is correct that our office was set on fire&period; The police are investigating&period; I do not know what to say&period; I’m in shock myself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We called the police and other security agencies at night&period; The fire brigade put the situation under control&period; The level of damage is still being assessed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It is very shocking and untoward&period; The security agencies are doing their very best&period; We are meeting again later today to come up with other strategies &lpar;toward securing our facilities&rpar;&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;