Fire outbreak was recorded early on Sunday at the headquarters of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) located at Sokale, on the road to the Ndamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja,
Some offices were including the Accounts, Records and Human Resources were said to have been affected in the fire outbreak.
The NIS confirmed the incident in a post on its Twitter handle, saying the incident has been brought under control.
The fire has now been put out, while the NIS says it has launched an investigation into the incident.
“A fire incident occurred in our Service Headquarters this morning. It affected some of our offices,” the tweet reads.
“The fire has been put out by our Federal Fire Station & support from other agencies around the airport. The cause of the fire is being investigated.”
The issue about the expiration of the tenure of the NIS’s Controller-General, Mohammed Babandede has become a source debate in recent time, with many faulting the decision of President Muhamadu Buhari to extend Babandede’s tenure.
A senior NIS official and lawyer, Daniel Makolo is currently before the national Industrial Court, Abuja in a suit in which he is querying the power of the President to extend Babandede’s tenure beyond the time provided by the law and civil service rules.
This is the first major fire incident in 2021 involving the headquarters of a government agency.
In 2020, as Nigeria battled the first wave of coronavirus infections, several government buildings were razed by fire.
Some of the buildings affected included the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), as well as the office of the accountant-general of the federation.
