Date 2014-03-25
Category Gist & Gossip
Workers at the Office of the Ogun State Governor at Oke-Mosan in Abeokuta, capital of the state, were left scuttling to safety on Monday morning, as fire gutted parts of the Protocols Office and the office of the Head of Service.
The fire, which started minutes before midday and was caused by a power surge, damaged computers, files, furniture and windows in the affected offices. But no injury or death was recorded, as men of the Ogun State Fire Service and officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) combined efforts to extinguish the fire.
Speaking after inspecting the offices, Governor of the state, Senator Ibikunle Amosun expressed happiness that no one died in the incident, saying, “There was no major loss; no life was lost; no human causality”.
Head of Service, Mrs. Modupe Adekunle blamed the fire on faulty electrical appliances and thanked God for the “minimal” damage.
“It was a power surge from the air conditioner. It came suddenly. When the workers who were in the office saw it, they tried all means to put the fire out”, Adekunle said.
“Some sets of computer were affected. The cause of the fire might be from the Independent Power Supply or Public Power Supply since we do not have generator there, but we thank God that the damage was very minimal”.
Twelve months ago, there was a similar fire incident at the private residence of the governor located at Government Reservation Area (GRA), Ibara, in the state capital.
The state’s fire fighters put out the fire but journalists who thronged the house to report the incident got the shock of their lives, as hostile members of the household and security men protested against coverage by the media.
The soldiers snatched their cameras and blackberry phones and even threatened to shoot them. Reporters of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), and Business Day all had their cameras seized and the photos in them deleted.
