Fire guts INEC’s electoral institute

The Independent National Electoral Commission’s Electoral Institute in Abuja has been gutted by fire.

The fire which began at about 11pm on Saturday destroyed bags, envelopes, election forms and electrical control panel/ switch   in the institute’s warehouse before it was contained at 2am on Sunday.

Before INEC spoke on the incident, there was   apprehension, especially in Abuja on Sunday that some sensitive materials for the March 28 and April 11 general elections might have been affected by the inferno.

INEC described the items damaged by the fire as “non-sensitive and old materials” used for the 2011 elections.

The result of the 2011 presidential poll was announced within the compound of the institute, which is located along the Airport Road, Abuja.

The electoral body also ruled out political sabotage and assured Nigerians that the incident would not in any way affect the conduct of the forthcoming elections.

Senate summons CBN, AMCON over Cecilia Ibru’s assets

 

Nigeria Senate

The Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics, Financial Crimes and Anti-corruption has summoned the management of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria to appear before it over seized assets worth N150bn.

The two federal government agencies had seized the assets in property and cash from the erstwhile Managing Director of the defunct Oceanic Bank International Plc, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, upon her conviction for fraud by a court of law.

A member of the committee, who preferred anonymity, told our correspondent on Sunday that the management of the CBN and AMCON, among other parties, would appear before it today (Monday) to respond to a petition.

The source said the petition alleged certain irregularities in the execution of the bank consolidation ordered by the CBN.

He added that the committee was also interested in the recovery of assets from loan defaulters and convicted managing directors of the defunct Oceanic Bank International Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Afribank Plc and Bank PHB.