BEVERLY HILLS, February 24, (THEWILL) – The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Osun State, Olusegun Agbaje has debunked the rumour that the office of the commission in Oriade Local Government Area (LGA) was burnt.
In a chat with Daily Trust in Osogbo this morning, Agbaje said the purported burning of INEC office in Oriade LGA was not true.
He explained that there was an incident between one of the ad hoc staff of INEC and some youths in the area and that the incident was not in connection with the election in any way.
“Some youths in the area were angry that one of our ad hoc staff called them ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ boys and they attempted to attack that ad hoc staff for calling them derogatory name.
“The ad-hoc staff ran into the INEC office at Oriade local government. The angry youths chased the ad hoc staff into the office bu the ad hoc staff eventually escaped from them.
“Because they could not get the ad hoc staff, the youths damaged the generating set and some items used for the election which the ad hod staff brought back from the collation center.
“That minor incident didn’t affect the conduct and the outcome of the election in the area. So, there was no incident of burning of INEC office in Osun”, Agbaje said.
The Police Public Relations Officer for Osun State Police Command, Folashade Odoro and top politicians in the area from both the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) corroborated the statement of the REC as they also narrated the same story.
There had been reports that a section of the INEC Office in Ijebu-Ijesha Oriade Local Government, in Osun has been gutted by fire around 3 am on Sunday.
It was reported that some hoodlums suspected to be political thugs allegedly set a section of the building ablaze along with some election materials while an electric generator owned by the commission was also burnt.
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