EC fire update: ‘Data Centre safe, ignore falsehood on social media’
The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has assured the public that it’s Data Centre is “safe and secure” despite a fire outbreak at its Greater Accra Regional Office.
A fire outbreak razed portions of the office located at Sapeiman at about 2 am on Friday, August 14.
The development has ignited discussions in social media circles, but the Commission has implored the public “to ignore the falsehood being peddled on social media to the effect that its Data Centre was destroyed by the fire”.
The EC said its main Administration Block was spared, but their storage facility was destroyed and used items including old forms, ballot boxes and referendum stationery were consumed by the fire.
The fire was detected by security official onsite who raised the alarm and called in personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service and the Ghana Police.
Four fire tenders from Kotoku, Amasaman, Nsawam and Abelemkpe were dispatched to the scene to douse the fire.
Meanwhile, the EC has revealed that everything is on course for the 2020 elections despite the incident.
“Whatever has happened is not going to affect the conduct of the 2020 elections,” Acting Director of Public Affairs of the EC, Sylvia Annoh, told theghanareport.com.
The EC recently completed its new voter registration exercise which captured over 16million Ghanaians exceeded the pegged target.
EC fire history
The last time fire razed an EC office was in August 2016 when fire burnt down two offices of the Electoral Commission (EC) at Ahafo Ano North in the Ashanti Region, destroying registration materials and gadgets.
Coincidentally, the incident happened in August, in an election year and also at dawn.
Two offices, the server room and the storerooms were burnt in a blaze that was detected around 3 a.m.
Other gadgets destroyed in that fire 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.
There could be an act of arson or just mischief.