…Collation Centre, ICT, Others Affected
By Adeniyi Adedeji, Ilorin
A wild rainstorm has damaged the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Kwara State.
It affected the roofs of the Commission’s collation centre, the ICT Centre as well as other sensitive room where computers sets were kept, with roofs blown off.
Already, the computer sets said to contain vital information were beaten by heavy rain as a result and the extent of damages done to them could not be ascertained yet, according to sources at the INEC office.
A torrential rain fell in Ilorin, the state capital and other parts of Kwara State at the weekend, which wrecked serious havocs. The INEC office complex was among the places affected.
INEC Head of General Administration and Procurement, GAP,, Mr Friday Patrick, conducted journalists on inspection round the affected buildings and offices within the complex.
During the inspection tour, the roof of the INEC car park was seen completely blown off, while one of the vehicles parked in the shed was seriously damaged.
Among other sensitive offices were the Administrative Secretary’s Office, the Electoral Operations, OPS office and the conference room, whose roofs were outrightly blown off.
Speaking with journalists, Patrick; the head of GAP said he came to the office on Sunday to discover that the rainstorm had damaged offices and buildings in the complex.
According to him, he had to call the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Malam Garba Attahiru-Madami, to intimate him of the havoc the storm had done.
He said they had to evacuate all the laptop sets and the computers from ICT to safe rooms, adding that they were yet to ascertain the level of damage to the computers because rain fell on all of them.
Speaking with journalists in his office, the REC in Kwara State, Mallam Attahiru-Madami, described the incident as a natural disaster that was above human control.
He appealed to the national headquarters of INEC to come to the aid of Ilorin office to fix the damaged roofs and ceiling so as to prevent damages to furniture and equipment in the offices affected.
Attahiru-Madami said he had already notified the head office through the Commissioner in charge of Works and Estate in INEC, stressing that he had confidence and optimism that INEC headquarters would respond to their needs in earnest.
