By James Ogunnaike, Abeokuta

The Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole has described the burnt Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office at Iyana Mortuary in Abeokuta South local government area of the State, as a case of arson and wake up call for the police to beef up security across the state.

Bankole disclosed this while he was on inspection of the burnt INEC office.

Others who came with the CP are Mr Femi Aaron, Director State Security Service (SSS) Niyi Ajibola, Commandant, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Amotekun Commander, Dave Akinremi as well as Mr Niyi Ijalaye, the Resident Commissioner for INEC, Ogun State.

Bankole, who described the incident as very sad and unfortunate said, “this unfortunate incident is no doubt strange to Ogun State and it is undoubtedly a wake up call. We shall surely get to the root of the matter. We shall also ensure the security is beef up across the state”.

It would be recalled that some suspected arsonists in the early hours of Thursday set the INEC office ablaze.

It was gathered that the hoodlums, numbering about eight had reportedly scaled the perimeter fence, jumped into the premises and set the INEC building on fire from the rear

They were alleged to have soaked loaves of bread with petrol and threw same into the building at different angles to light up the INEC office.

It was further learnt that the security guard at the facility, one Azeez Hamzat, had made a distress call to the police around 1 am, saying the facility was on fire.

The police from Ibara division were said to have mobilized detectives to the scene, while contacting fire fighters, who raced to the scene to put out the fire.

It was gathered that the store, the Registration Area Officer’s office and the conference room were affected by the inferno.

A source also told our correspondent that non-sensitive materials were also affected by the fire.

“No life was lost and no injury was sustained in the fire,” it was learnt.

The Ogun INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Niyi Ijalaye described the incident as very shocking, saying that the loss suffered was quite colossal.

Ijalaye while speaking with journalists also said that he couldn’t say anything on the number of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) that might have been likely lost to the incident as his staff are still carrying out internal investigation to know the extent of the damage.