Fire guts Lagos Auditor-General’s office

Kunle Awosiyan, Lagos - 26.02.2008

The office of the Auditor-General of Lagos State at the state secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja, was on Monday gutted by fire.

The incident, which occurred at about 11:58 a.m., destroyed a file cabinet, refrigerator, pieces of furniture and a computer system.

According to a source at the office, an Assistant Director of Logistics used the office that was gutted with fire.

The source said some valuable information would have been lost as the burnt computersystem had been the main database of the office in the last two years.

“It must be recalled that the same office got burnt about two years ago when valuable documents were burnt. Since then, the government had directed that valuable information should be saved on computer,” the source said.

But in her reaction, the Permanent Secretary, Office of the Auditor-General, Mrs. Oluwayomi Modupe Akinwolemiwa, denied that vital documents might have been burnt, pointing out that the officers around were able to control the stirs before it could spread to the vital areas.

According to her, “today’s fire incident is due to electrical surge. The PHCN produced an abnormal voltage that caused the electrical sparks.”