Accountant General of the Federation Demands Probe into Fire

• Vital Documents Still Intact, Says Senate Finance Committee

The Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Idris Ahmed, has demanded for a panel of inquiry to investigate the fire that gutted a part of his office on Wednesday morning.

He equally recommended that report of the panel be made available to the Senate.

Mr. Ahmed said this when the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola, visited the scene of the incident and the office of the Accountant General.

The Accountant General informed the Chairman that the fire started as a result of electrical malfunction of the complex cooling system in the office housing some capital account documents, adding that the server of the office where documents were electronically stored were intact and burnt documents could easily be retrieved.

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Although details on how the fire was ignited were still sketchy, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, who briefed journalists said it started when a staff switched on an air-conditioner (AC) which sparked.

He, however, said a full-scale investigation involving forensic experts may be eventually instituted to ascertain the real cause of the inferno.

Agba, who was accompanied on the visit to the scene by Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Ahmed Idris, also said there were neither human casualties nor destruction to sensitive data and records by the fire, which raged for over 30 minutes before it was eventually put out by a 25 firefighting trucks from Central Bank of Nigeria, Federal Fire Service, FCT Fire Service and Julius Berger firefighters.

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Explaining, he said, “An officer came to the office. He put on the air conditioner and there was a spark. He noticed smoke and he immediately put it off, but it was still smouldering and he had to rush out to get some help.

“The only thing that has happened to the data centre is the exterior where we have the cooling units at the back. The data centre always has to be cool. One of the things we’ve done is to shut down the data centre since the cooling units are not functioning optimally.

“We’ve directed that those cooling units should be immediately put in order so that we do not lose anything in that data centre.”

In his remarks, the AGF, Mr Idris Ahmed there was no need to link the fire incident to sabotage and urged the public to wait for the outcome of the investigation.

“I can’t point to sabotage. We should allow the investigation to be carried out. I myself can be a suspect.”

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On why such a sensitive office had no fire tenders, Ahmed said fire truck acquisition and the establishment of a sub-station were part of the reforms for the office of the AGF.

“We know the initial arrangement did not make adequate provision for fighting fire. We’re putting up a sub-station for firefighting and acquiring some more gadgets. Some are in the store; just that they’ve not been commissioned. It’s unfortunate that fire happened.

“The property is insured and we insisted on insurance for the treasury building. I’m glad the government agreed and provided funds,” he added.

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He commended the FCT Fires Service and over 25 fire trucks from NNPC, CBN, Julius Berger and the Army that came to the rescue when FCT Fire Service ran out of water, adding that their efforts limited the damages to the building.

Senator Adeola after the assessment of the incident claimed that the incident was a minor one and he was convinced that irreparable damage was not done to the building as vital documents were not burnt.

He said: “After the meeting between the leadership of the National Assembly and members of the executive on the effects of COVID19 on the economy where we got news of the fire, I came to see things for myself and I am happy to report that irreparable damage was not done to the building and more importantly documents burnt are easily retrievable as the main server of the office was not affected and only hard copy of some capital projects which are online real time are affected.”

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