Leadership (Abuja)
Winifred Ogbebo
19 November 2009
Abuja — Two floors at the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), headquarters in Abuja, were consumed yesterday by fire.
According to a statement made available to LEADERSHIP, the Administration and Pharmaco-vigilance departments both on the right wing and on the ground and first floors respectively, were mostly affected by the fire which started at about 2 am.
Another source disclosed that the office of the director-general would also have been affected by the fire, but for the recently installed protective doors guarding the office and the timely intervention of the FCT fire service. However, investigations showed that guards on duty alerted the director, accounts, who in turn, contacted the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Fire Service who put out the fire.
At the time the headquarters of the agency was visited, all floors of the building were still covered with soot as cleaners tried to clear the mess caused by the fire. Other staff of the agency were also seen moving out empty cans of used fire extinguishers.
To this point, the members of staff of the agency were not willing to say anything on the incident, saying they would wait for the return of the director-general, Dr Paul Orhii, who was away on an official trip to Markurdi.
However, a senior official of the agency who did not want his name in print said the fire, which destroyed properties worth millions of naira, is the handiwork of drug counterfeiters.
Alluding to earlier fire incidents at the NAFDAC Lagos office in 2002 and the Kaduna office in 2004, the NAFDAC officials wondered why the pharmaco-vigilance department was worst hit by the fire.
He said the department houses the files containing the activities of drug counterfeiters in the country.
Another staff of the agency did not agree with the conspiracy theory, and blamed the fire on an electric fault.
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