National Assembly storage destroyed by fire, documents damaged

A business in the House of Representatives area of the National Assembly Complex in Abuja was completely destroyed by fire on Thursday.
The alarm was raised on Thursday at around 6 p.m. by onlookers who saw smoke coming from a business on the second floor of the New Building, House of Reps Wing of the Complex.
The wing contains the committee rooms, banking, and other private businesses used by MPs.
The fourth level houses the Speaker’s office, the Deputy Speaker’s office, and the key officers.
Security personnel and Federal Fire Service firefighters went to the building in order to put out the fire, which they later put out. The Federal Fire Service has a permanent office on the property.
The Director of Information, National Assembly, Rawlings Agada, confirmed the incident in a statement issued on Thursday, titled ‘Reported Fire Incident at the House of Representatives New Wing Today, Thursday, 11th August, 2022, in the National Assembly Complex.’
The statement read, “There was a fire incident this evening in one of the janitors located on the 2nd Floor, Room 227 in the New Wing of the House of Representatives, suspected to have resulted from an electrical fault which was noticed by one of the staff (members attached) to the Clerk, House of Representatives, who promptly alerted the Federal Fire Service unit stationed in the National Assembly Complex.
“Accordingly, the fire have be put out with assistance of staff on duty who immediately broke into the affected office and effectively deployed stationed fire extinguishers on the floor before the arrival of the fire service officers.
“Consequently, the combined prompt efforts curtailed the fire to the affected office only, and power supply to the wing put off to enable a full assessment and investigations into the incident.
“It is expected that after due assessment by the Fire Service and the Estate and Works Directorate, normalcy in the New Wing housing all principal officers of the House of Representatives and honourable members’ offices will be restored immediately.
“(The) Management wishes to commend the prompt response/ actions by the first responders particularly National Assembly staff (members) and the Fire Service unit in helping to curtain the fire outbreak.”
Additionally, Agada included pictures of the scene, which showed burned-out furniture, books, and other belongings.
The federal parliament has previously kept track of fire outbreaks of various intensities.

GOGAN Media.