Fire guts part of Federal Secretariat, Lafia

He said that the cause of the fire, which affected the second floor of the three-storey complex, would be investigated.

A section of the Muhammad Sidi Bage Federal Secretariat, Lafia, has been gutted by fire.

The fire, which started at about 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, was contained by the combined efforts of the Federal and State Fire Services.

An official of the Federal Fire Service, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the fire had been brought under control.

He said that the cause of the fire, which affected the second floor of the three-storey complex, would be investigated.

Meanwhile, Shetima Mohammed, the state’s commissioner of police, who was on the ground to assess the situation, told journalists that police personnel had been deployed to cordon off the facility.

Mr Mohammed noted that the measure was meant to prevent hoodlums from taking advantage of the situation to vandalise offices in the secretariat.

He commended the combined efforts of the Federal and State Fire Services personnel for putting out the fire.

“It was this afternoon when we were coming back from the supervision of the All Progressive Congress (APC) primary election that we were reliably informed that the Federal Secretariat is on fire.

“So based on that, we rushed to the area, and we discovered that it is not all that bad.

“Preliminary investigation revealed that fire began from the section housing solar power inverters, possibly due to poor ventilation,” he said.

(NAN)