A lot has been said about the City Hall fire
incident. I have reacted several times to
clarify the ambiguity created by those who
have cashed in on the incident for cheap
political advantage.
Let me say for the umpteenth time that I did
not have anything to do with the fire
incident at City Hall.
I am reacting again for the following
reasons;
First, for the new generation of Nigerians to
know what really transpired at that time
and also to further educate those who do
not know what happened on that
unfortunate day.
Second is for the mischief-makers to know
that no matter how fast lies travel, truth will
definitely catch up.
This is my story.
The day the fire incident occurred was a
working day in the morning and I was not
in the office when the fire started.
Based on the briefings I received,
immediately my staff discovered the fire
outbreak, they tried to contact the fire
service and at the same time while waiting
for the fire service to come, they were also
trying everything humanly possible to put
out the fire.
The fire affected only the office of the
Chairman and also the council chamber
where legislative discussions are held. The
office of the Secretary to the local
government where administrative records
are kept was not affected at all.
More importantly, the office of the Treasurer
to the council was also not affected. For
emphasis, the only section, of City Hall that
was affected was my office as the
Chairman, which was badly damaged.
Meanwhile the council chamber that was
affected was just an open space where
legislative discussions are held. No records
or files of any importance are kept there at
all.
The insinuation and allegations that the fire
was generated or created to cover up for
anything is an unkind attempt to give a dog
a bad name in order to hang it. I also
consider it much ado about nothing
because no document of strategic
importance was missing at that point.
Let us not forget that this incident
happened under the regime of the late
General Sani Abacha, a military dictator.
However, at this time, we had a very
responsible and progressive administrator
of Lagos State in person of Brigadier
General Buba Marwa (rtd) who came by
himself to inspect the scene of the fire
outbreak and immediately set up a panel to
probe the incident. The panel was headed
by no other person but the late Engr.
Pinhero, a respected Lagosian who was
then Commissioner for Works in Lagos
State.
At the end of their investigations and
findings, the Pinhero panel came up with a
report that it was a power surge from an
electrical point that created the fire incident.
I am a proud Lagosian and there is no way
that I will do anything that will affect our
heritage. I am committed to Lagos and I
am very passionate about Lagos.
Fortunately in 1999, I was appointed as
Commissioner for Home Affairs and Culture
and the Fire Service Department was
directly placed under my office. Realizing
what transpired at City Hall when there was
a fire incident and we couldn’t get a good
response time or an efficient fire service
operation, I decided to make that challenge
something we needed to overcome. I sent
in a memo asking to make it a Lagos State
Government policy to build at least one fire
service station in every local government
area of the state and also create an
institution where studies on fire service and
emergency management issues will be
handled. Unfortunately that memo was
thrown out by the then Governor of Lagos
State, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu who did
not approve the memo. Otherwise it would
have become a policy and today we would
have had at least one fire service station in
every local government area of Lagos State
and also by extension the only Emergency
and Fire Service Training Institute in
Nigeria. But as I speak, there is none.