Ahmed probes fire incident at state ministry

KWARA State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, has ordered an investigation into the fire outbreak that gutted the top floor of the state’s Ministry of Energy, with a view to determine its cause.

According to the state’s Commissioner for Energy, Alhaji Musa Abdullahi, while reacting to the incident in Ilorin yesterday, “the governor had ordered an immediate probe of the fire disaster.”

Already, the governor had promptly advised all commissioners and heads of parastatals in the state to put adequate fire prevention mechanism in place to avoid such occurrence in their organisations.

Besides, the state government has assured that the fire outbreak will not deter it in its commitment to providing the needed infrastructures to the people.

According to Abdullahi, the fire, which affected nearly all the offices on the top floor of the one storey building, was suspected to have been caused by electric power surge at about 8:00pm on Tuesday.‎

“The fire outbreak of Tuesday night was an unfortunate and unexpected development that has led to loss of some offices, but we are happy that other vital sections of the ministry were not affected.

“In this regard, we want to assure the people of the state that the resolve of the administration of Governor Ahmed to serve all parts of the state remains a priority,” he said.

The commissioner thanked all fire service agencies in the state and others who helped in bringing the fire under control.

The security guard at the ministry, Mohammed Alabi stated, “I was praying at my duty post around 8.pm when I saw fire coming out from the building. So I ran to the police station to help me contact the fire service. The fire service battled with the inferno from 8.pm to 1.pm in the midnight.”

The state’s Head of Service Alhaji Dabarako Mohammed, assured that before Friday all the affected staff would have been relocated. He added that the structure had been included in the 2015 budget for reconstruction.