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.
