Nigeria govt office gutted
2004-03-08 15:12
Lagos - The Nigerian government's administrative centre in the country's commercial capital Lagos has been almost entirely gutted by a mystery fire, witnesses and fire brigade officials said on Monday.
Eleven levels of the 12-storey Federal Secretariat were entirely burned out as firefighters battled to contain the blaze, which broke out late on Sunday and raged through the night, Fire Superintendent Elechi Collins said.
"The fire is now absolutely under control. What we are doing now is what we call a dampening down operation," he said.
Nobody was hurt in the blaze, which broke out while the offices were closed for the weekend, and an investigation has begun.
The secretariat, which is in the Ikoyi Island district of the former capital, now houses the Lagos annexes of several federal agencies, while the seat of government has moved to Abuja.
Among the offices destroyed were those of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (Nafdac) which regulates food standards and imports, Collins said.
Fires often erupt in Nigerian government offices, and suspicions are sometimes raised that corrupt officials may be using arson to destroy compromising paperwork.
The secretariat lies a short distance from the multi-storey offices of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which were entirely gutted by fire in December 2002.
Last month the Lagos High Court lost a block of offices and several important case files to another fire.