Official records are intact, fire at Accountant-General’s office was caused by a spark from an Air Conditioner - Minister

The Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba has confirmed that no official records were lost in the fire which gutted the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation earlier today.

Agba also told newsmen that the fire at the treasury house was caused by a spark from one of the Air Conditioners on the 4th floor of the building at about 10am Wednesday. He said the fire was successfully put out by 25 fire trucks within 35 minutes.

The Minister revealed that the only damage to the data centre is the exterior which houses the cooling units. According to him, there is also a back up Centre outside Abuja to enable recovery in the event of any loss. He said the immediate steps taken was to immediately shut down the data centre since the cooling units are no longer cooling optimally.

Agba said;

“We have gone round the rooms and offices where the fire affected, and I am glad to report that our data Centre where all our records are kept are fully intact. There is no destruction, so we haven’t lost any record.

“As a government I want to assure you that our records are intact, a few documents are burnt, we haven’t started recovery to check what actually burnt, but all our financial transactions are intact.

“We would be doing full scale investigation using the right professionals to determine exactly what happened.”

The Minister disclosed that the only unit affected by the fire is the unit from where MDAs capital releases are made.

Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris also confirmed that no casualty was recorded and no offical document was lost.

Idris said;

“For emphasis, our data Centre is intact, no harm in any way except for the cooling system which we are now working hard to put back to operation. We are also glad there is no casualty.”

The AGF never ruled out the possibility of sabotage as he maintained that a thorough investigation will be carried out.