People in upscale Maitama district of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, ran helter-skelter this morning as they saw think smokes billowing from a building in the neighbourhood.

Some panicked, thinking it was another terrorist attack, but it was nothing of such; instead, it was the headquarters of the country’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on fire.

The fire, according to an INEC senior official who addressed newsmen, started in the Voter Registry Department and did not cause much damage before it was put off by men of the Federal Fire Service and the National Emergency Management Agency.

Painting a clear picture of what happened, INEC’s Director of Information Communication Technology, ICT, Engineer Chidi Nwafor, said: “There was a fire incident this morning. Between 9:12am to 9:30am we started perceiving odour like a burnt odour, so what we did was to look for the place. It was in the department they call voter registry.

“Most of us that were around that time had to use the normal fire extinguisher to try to stop the fire and at the same time we called the fire service and the fire service came, when the fire service came the NEMA came, as I am talking to you now the fire has been quenched so no more fire now. It was only one office that was affected.”

The fire is believed to have been caused by electrical fault and is the second such incident at the commission after a similar one in the office of the chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, which caused wreaked havoc on the visitors’ room and parts of the computer sections.