There was fire inside the compound of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) headquarters on Tuesday, contrary to the claim of the bank, the fire service has said.
The bank on Tuesday evening claimed that what observers thought was fire at its headquarters was just smoke.
In a statement on Tuesday, the bank’s spokesperson, Isaac Okorafor said, “Reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria head office building is on fire are false.”
Okorafor added that the smoke came from the generator house of the bank which he said was far away from the main building.
“Passersby who saw a pall of exhaust from the generator house far away from the building apparently mistook the exhaust for fire smoke,” he explained.
That claim of the banking regulator was punctured by the comptroller of the Federal Capital Territory Fire Service, Opetunsin Julius, who said there was fire.
He said his department received a panic alert at 6:38 pm on Tuesday.
“The fire affected only one of two generator houses and our men were able to put it out within 30 minutes,” the official said.
In his statement, Mr Okorafor said, “The CBN maintains a total security system that triggers safety alarms in the presence of smoke and so all fire engines and personnel received the alert only to discover that it was an unusual pall of exhaust.
“The affected generator has been rested and normal work has been uninterrupted, while the engineers are working to rectify the issues with the generator.
“We hereby assure the general public that there has been no fire at our building.” Premium Times
