Suspected arsonists, early Thursday morning, set a Local Government office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Abeokuta South Local Government at Iyana Mortuary, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on fire.

The arsonists numbering about eight had reportedly invaded the facility around 1am to set it on fire.

They reportedly scaled the perimeter fence of the building, jumped into the premises and set in on fire from the back.

The store, the Registration Area Officer's office and the conference room were all affected by the inferno.

It was gathered that the hoodlums soaked loaves of bread with petrol and threw same into the building at different angles to light up the facility.

The security guard at the facility, Azeez Hamzat, was said to have made a distress call to the police and reported the incident.

The police from Ibara division were said to have mobilized detectives to the scene, while contacting fire fighters, who raced to the scene to put out the fire.

A source also told our correspondent that non-sensitive materials were also affected by the fire.

“No life was lost and no injury was sustained in the fire,” a source in the office said.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the State, Niyi Ijalaye, confirmed the incident, describing it as shocking and untowards.

“It is correct that our office was set on fire. The police are investigating. I do not know what to say. I'm in shock myself. We called the police and other security agencies at night. The fire brigade put the situation under control. The level of damage is still being assessed.

“It is very shocking and untoward. The security agencies are doing their very best. We are meeting again later today to come up with other strategies (toward securing our facilities,” Ijalaye said.

The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, could not be reached for comments as of the time of filing this report.