By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The fire incident which occurred on Wednesday at the Treasury House (Office of the Accountant General of the Federation), might have been caused by a spark in the air condition system, Minister of State, Budget & National Planning, Clem Agba has disclosed.
Briefing journalists after inspecting the extent of damage to the Treasury House, the Minister of State said the fire started at about 10 am on the fourth floor of the imposing building, “when an officer put on the Air conditioner and there was a spark”.
According to the Minister, when the officer noticed smoke, “he immediately put it off but it was still smoking, so he had to rush out to get some help”.
Agba pointed out that due to the timely intervention of firefighters from the Federal Fire Service, the CBN, NNPC, FCT, and Julius Berger, the fire was brought under control and put off within 35 minutes.
The Minister also disclosed that the database of the OAGF was not affected by the fire as well as all the financial records.
“We have gone round the office where the fire affected and I’m glad to report to you that our data center where all our records are kept are fully intact.
“There is no dysfunction so we haven’t lost any records. I also should remind you that for a while we have really gone digital so yet we have some documents that are kept manually but a lot of what we do is online.
“And even if the data center were to be affected we have the backup center that is outside of Abuja for recovery for an event that we lose the data center. The only thing that has happened to the data center is the exterior where we have the cooling unit at the back because the center always has to be cool.
“So one of the immediate steps we have taken is just to shut down the data center since the cooling units are not functioning again and we have directed that those cooling units should be immediately put in order so we don’t lose anything”, he said.
Agba, however, announced that even though important government records and financial transactions were not affected by the fire, the government will institute an inquiry to ascertain the cause of the fire.
He said, “we will be doing full-scale investigations using the right professionals just to determine exactly what happened because what I am telling you now is what I have been told, so the professionals will be able to tell us whether it was from the air conditioner or something that was in use and if we have had any materials lost”.
