Officials escape death as fire guts EFCC office

At least two persons escaped death while equipment worth
millions of naira was damaged after a fire incident at the old head
office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in the Wuse
2 area of Abuja on Monday.

Although the cause of the fire could not be ascertained as of
press time, it was learnt that the fire started from the ICT
department which formerly served as the newsroom.

The EFCC said in a statement by its acting spokesman, Mr. Tony
Orilade, that the damage would have been worse if not for the
timely arrival of men of the Federal Fire Service.

The firefighters led by the Sector Commander, Melone Onyekachi,
arrived at the scene when the service was alerted to the fire by
the Incident Duty Officer of the commission, Kayode Oyetunde, at
7pm .

The statement read in part, “The fire started at the former
newsroom, which now serves as storage for ICT equipment that were
retrieved from the commission’s former offices scattered across
Abuja.

“The former newsroom is in the Costa Hall, which was inaugurated
by Dr. Antonio Costa in 2007. The building currently houses the
Data Centre and the Combined Inter Agency Task Force.”

When asked what could have caused the fire, Onyekachi said, “Our
duty is to put out fire; that we have successfully done. There is
another department that will come and ascertain the cause of the
fire.”

According to the statement, two officers attached to the
Combined Inter-Agency Task Force who were trapped on the second
floor of the building were rescued before the fire was eventually
subdued. The extent of the damage would be ascertained after
stock-taking.

The Commission’s Chief Security Officer, Nasir Abdullahi,
immediately after the fire was stopped, went to the Maitama Police
Station to report.

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