Exclusive: Treasury House fire was a sabotage, all records gone

Arsonists could be at work in the Wednesday morning fire that engulfed the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation in Abuja.

The building, otherwise known as Treasury House, was substantially damaged by the fire and vital equipment, documents and even computer hard drives destroyed, contrary to earlier reports.

Preliminary post-fire investigations by a team of investigators from the Fire Service concluded that the incident was a sabotage.

TheNigerian learnt that one of the officers shocked at the level of the damage to the building told his boss: “Sir, there are very significant damages to vital departments too; Federation Accounts Expenditure Capital, in addition to Administration Maintenace; Human Resources; Insurance; ICT. All GIFMIS backup records are gone. Hard drives burnt. Every record is gone. Oga, this was sabotage.”

The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation among other functions, keeps the accounts of the Federation and disburses revenue accruing to the country to the three tiers of government on a monthly basis in the ratio prescribed by the constitution.

The incumbent Accountant General, Alhaji Ahmed Idris is from Kano State and has been in the saddle since June 2015.

No cause of the fire has yet been given by the government, though a statement on that is expected any moment from now.

Misery fire incidents at public buildings have been part of governance in Nigeria so to speak for as long as anyone can remember, with accounts and records departments often the ones to get burnt.

One of the most memorable of such public buildings burnt was the then NECOM House in Marina Lagos.

Then the tallest building in Nigeria, the house belonged to defunct Nigeria External Telecommunications (NET) later known as NITEL.

It was burnt sometime in 1983 on a day then President Shehu Shagari was jetting our of Lagos to India on a State visit. Shagari was heavily criticized by the opposition and general public for not calling off the trip to attend to the incident.

He was accused of junketing while the nation was on fire.

President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to comment on the Treasury House Fire.