By Albert Akota
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) secretariat in Abuja, was engulfed in flames yesterday morning, even as the embattled Aminu Maigari-led Board were trying to settle down to work.
The upheaval at the NFF doesn’t look to have abated as the offices of the General Secretary and the Chief Accountants was engulfed in fire as several valuable information lost in the process.
The fire started from the left wing of the building at about 9:30 am working hour at office of the General Secretary, Musa Amadu on the second floor.
Also affected were the offices of the competitions and international departments which several of their documents destroyed, but head of the NFF international department, Bola Oyeyede says: “Almost all our documents are intact, they weren’t affected by the fire.”
Returning president of the NFF, Aminu Maigari was present during the inferno and has also reacted to the incident.
“We are grateful to the FCT fire service command, for showing up when they did otherwise it could have been worse.
“We believe it is the will of God for this to happen and we have taken it in good faith but I’m sure the cause of this incident will be investigated,” he told SL10.
When asked if he thought it was arson, Maigari refuted it, stating that he believes it was an accident.
“We do not suspect anybody or any foul play in this incident, but we have to leave it for experts to determine,” he added.
Meanwhile, deputy controller of the FCT fire service (operations), Opetunsin Julius says: “We got the call a few minutes past 10am and we got here as quickly as we could and thankfully we were able to put out the fire before it got worse.”
He however posited that it might be too early to determine if it was arson or an accident.”
“It is too early for us to say because we have to launch an investigation and then we can determine what the cause of the fire really was,” he said.
The NFF have been in crisis lately, with Aminu Maigari only returning to office as president on Monday, with a faction led by Mike Umeh insisting that Maigari remains impeached.
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