Accountant’s office razed
• Fire service men berate NFF
• AFCON, U-17 trophies intact
The President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Aminu Mai­gari, has described the fire that gutted the secre­tariat of the football fed­eration yesterday morn­ing as a sad development, but expressed happiness that it did not claim any life.
Beyond not claiming any life, the trophies won last year by the country, the Af­rican Cup of Nations and the FIFA U-17 World Cup were salvaged from the inferno, even as Secretary General of the federation, Barrister Musa Amadu claimed all vital documents are intact.
Answering questions from the journalists at the Glass House two hours af­ter the fire started, Maigari said though he considered the incident as an act of God, the security agents should do everything pos­sible to unravel the circum­stance surrounding the fire incident.
“It is a very sad devel­opment, but we leave ev­erything in the hands of almighty God. First and foremost one must appreci­ate the almighty God since no life was lost in the in­ferno. I believe the security agents will unravel what actually happened, Maigari said.
General Secretary of the soccer federation Barrister Musa Amadu, on his part said the fire did not con­sume any sensitive docu­ment.
While commending the fire service that curtailed the inferno, the federation’s chief scribe maintained that the situation did not call for blame game, expressing happiness that some mem­bers of the staff were able to rescue both the Africa Nations Cup AFCON and FIFA U-17 World Cup tro­phies.
In his words: “The fire as I was told when I arrived the NFF secretariat, started from the chief accountant’s office, thank God the most important trophies, which are the African cup of na­tions and the FIFA U-17 trophies are safe. I just want to clear the air that this fire did not start from my office. It started from the office of the chief ac­countant, which is right next to my office.
I do not have sensitive documents that would in­dict anybody in my office. If there are vital docu­ments, they can’t be in my office. Only God knows what has happened.”
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Fire Service has blamed the incident on carelessness on the part of officials of the Glass House.
Speaking to the NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari, after battling the fire for more than an hour, the Deputy Controller, FCT Fire Service, Opetunsin J .O., also lamented that the barricade at the entrance of the federation, and break­down in communication were some of the other fac­tors that made his men find things difficult at the scene.
“Sir, I want to inform you that there was no adequate arrangement made for fire incidence in this building. If there are fire extinguish­ers and staffers trained to fight fire, they would have curtailed the fire inside the office, before it escalated. I want to also let you know that the major problem we encountered was the barri­cade at the entrance of the gate. Again, We could not respond on time because of lack of proper communica­tion. We were contacted when the fire has almost gone out of hand.”
The fire started around 9.20am from the office of the Assistant Director, Ac­count, Andekin Christo­pher. It took the interven­tion of eight fire fighting tankers, including those from Julius Berger Con­struction Company to put out the inferno.

Football house on fire