FG investigates fire incident at Ibe Kachikwu’s house

The Federal Government through its Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency on Tuesday announced that it had commenced an investigation to ascertain the actual cause of the fire incident that broke out at the Abuja residence of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, on Sunday evening.


Although the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources had earlier stated that the fire incident in one of the rooms of the building had nothing to do with sabotage, NEMSA explained that it was important to come up with factual reasons.

Part of Kachikwu’s residence in one of the luxury estates in Asokoro got burnt on Sunday due to a suspected electrical fault. The minister was not in the building when this occurred.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, NEMSA, Peter Ewesor, told journalists at a briefing in Abuja on Tuesday that the agency had visited the house where the fire incident happened to carry out proper investigation.

He said, “We’ve gone there and we are working on it. A similar thing happened in the house of the acting director-general of the ICRC and our men went there to investigate the issue. Some of these things when they happen, we don’t rush to make any judgement. When you are doing any investigation, you must be sure that this is what actually happened.

“That is why we are working in collaboration with the fire service, because many times, once there is fire somewhere, people conclude that it was caused by electrical faults. But we’ve found out on many occasions that such incidents were never related to electrical issues.”