No official records lost to Treasury House fire – FG

The federal government wednesday allayed fears of destruction of official records by the fire that razed Treasury House, which houses the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF).

Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, told reporters in Abuja after inspecting the scene of the incident that preliminary reports showed that all records were intact after the fire outbreak at a data centre in the OAGF.

However, despite the minister’s assurance, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called for a full-scale investigation into the fire incident.

“We have not lost any record,” he said, attributing the fire to a spark from one of the cooling units.

He, however, said notwithstanding the preliminary explanation for the incident, a full-scale investigation would be conducted by professionals to ascertain the actual cause of the fire.

The minister said an officer who reported for work had tried to switch on one of the air-conditioners, leading to an electrical spark about 10.00 a.m.

He said it took the intervention of 25 fire trucks from a combined team from the Federal Fire Service in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), including their counterparts from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Julius Berger Plc, and the military to put out the inferno within 35 minutes.

The minister explained that though a few documents were burnt, “all our financial transactions are intact.”

(Credit: Thisday)