Fire burns offices of EC at Ahafo Ano North
Fire burnt down two offices of the Electoral Commission (EC) at dawn yesterday at Ahafo Ano North in the Ashanti Region, destroying registration materials and gadgets.
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Two offices, the server room and the storerooms were burnt in a blaze that was detected around 3 a.m. on Monday.
No casualty
Other gadgets destroyed were a Voting Management System device, which is used to send information to the headquarters in Accra, over 18 generators, filled registration forms, furniture, registrations cards, challenge forms, computers and forms that were submitted for proxy votes.
Although the EC has a backup for its registration exercise, it will be extremely difficult to have the submitted forms for proxy voting.
Fire Officer
The Ashanti Regional Commander of the Ghana National Fire Service, Assistance Chief Officer Semekor Fiadzor, who spoke to the Daily Graphic, could not tell the immediate cause of the fire but gave an assurance that investigations had commenced.
He said the firemen on duty at the district office spotted a billow of smoke from the offices of the EC around 3.28 a.m.
He said within two minutes, the firemen had mobilised and were at the scene but realised that the fire had reached an advanced stage and was spreading to adjoining offices, so the officers decided to prevent the spread of the fire.
The adjoining offices included that of the National Health Insurance Scheme and the Audit Service.
Mr Fiadzor added that the spread and intensity of the fire was aided by the combustive materials and the generator sets but the fire- men were able to bring the fire under control.
EC
The Deputy Regional Director of the EC, Mr Lucas Yiryei, who was at the scene to ascertain the cause of the fire and the damage caused, confirmed the destruction of the materials and gadgets and said the only things salvaged were voting booths which were in different rooms.
He said the regional office was waiting for the GNFS officers for their report and they would also report the incident in Accra for further action.
NPP
A registration agent of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the centre, Mr Fred Amfo, said the second week continuing registration was very smooth till Saturday when the lights went off and in their attempt to use a generator, the machine blew some gadgets.
He said at that time about 162 people had been registered; leaving their pictures, which had been slowed down by poor network.
He said after the breakdown, the EC officers called in some experts from Accra to repair the damage “but not long after that the fault developed again and blew up the step down”.
