The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ondo State Chapter has said that it received the news of the fire outbreak that engulfed a container with over 5000 card reading machines at the Akure office of INEC on Thursday night with great disappointment.
The party according to a statement issued by Kennedy Ikantu Peretei, the Publicity Secretary, PDP, Ondo State posted pertinent questions to INEC saying: “Does INEC not have an internal mechanism to curtail fire outbreak in her office”.
The statement also queried if the metal container containing the over 5000 card reader machines connected was to electricity, and if so, was the electricity supply not put off after the official close of work at 05.00pm. The party also asked where the security officers on duty were at the time the fire started.
The major opposition party to the ruling one in the state, however, urged INEC to proffer answers to those questions raised for the good people of Ondo State to judge, saying it could not afford to go into an election in the next 30 days with a compromised system.
PDP, however, fumed over the comment of INEC that the October 10 election won’t be affected by this development, saying “this is not enough from a Commission whose existence is being funded by taxpayers money, we’re demanding for full report of the causes of the inferno and when it is established those culpable must be sanctioned”.
The party hence admonished INEC not to take the people of Ondo State for granted as no excuse would be accepted from the Commission if there is a complaint of non-functionality of card reader machines during the forthcoming gubernatorial election.
Packaged by Emmanuel Adeniran
