HURIWA QUERIES FIRE INCIDENT AT NIS HEADQUARTERS

Oru Leonard

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has condemned the reported fire incident that razed a part of the imposing and newly commissioned headquarters of Nigerian immigration at airport road Abuja,

The foremost human rights group expressed surprise stating that a new structure built at huge cost to the public is being deliberately set ablaze to apparently conceal evidence of massive corruption is disheartening.

According to HURIWA, “This incident raises a number of posers: what happened? How did the fire come about? Why the coincidence between the reported expiration of the tenure of the comptroller general of NIS and the fire incident? Is this a case of sabotage? And if not, why will such a big complex not house 21st century compliant fire service equipment within the complex? Is this a pattern / practice of this current government to go about setting offices ablaze and at the end of the day those fire incidences are not properly investigated?”

HURIWA noted that the fire incident is one too many to be dismissed as a mere coincidence, “we suspect that there is a grand design to cover up some alleged financial heists/ malfeasance at the top most level of government. This demands transparent and an open independent probe and not the in- house probegoing on as we speak.
“The Nigerian Immigration Services headquarters is a NATIONAL INSTITUTION OF GLOBAL SIGNIFICANCE. So the incident of fire emergency must be thoroughly investigated to eliminate or establish case of sabotage or otherwise. An attack on the Nigerian Immigration Services headquarters is a direct attacks on the National Security interest of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
This particular fire incident has followed an ugly pattern”.

HURIWA recalled so many fire incidences from the office of the Accountant General followed by Cooperate Affairs Commission (CAC), and then Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying that those ones happened during the lockdown when there was supposed to be adequate security measures in place , sadly these fire incidences in these major institutions have happened and been swept under the carpet and there are no open investigation suggesing that there is something fishy about it . “Let the government tell Nigerians what they are hiding and why are the institutions going up in flames”, HURIWA queried.

This is because these institutions that are going up in flames are the custodians of revenue yielding documents and even INEC that went up in flames happened between the period of pendency of the post 2019 post-election petition litigation, if we are not mistaken.

Since March 25, 2020 when President Mohammadu Buhari authorised the lockdown of Lagos and Ogun states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, mysterious infernos have engulfed three prominent government agencies. In quick succession, fire have gutted the Treasury Building, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the latest is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

HURIWA pointed out that the mystery of these fire is their sequence, occurring almost at one week interval as
Nigerians were shocked to know that days after the CAC and the Treasury House in Abuja were gutted by fire, a section of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Maitama-Abuja, was gutted by fire.

This happened exactly one week after the headquarters of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation was gutted by fire, there was another fire incident at the headquarters of the Corporate Affairs Commission.
The building is located on the same street that houses other top government offices like the National Youth Service Corps, the Nigeria Incentives Risk-Based Sharing for Agricultural Lending and the Nigeria Export Promotion Commission among others.