Mysterious Fire Guts Part of NFF Office, Leaves Accounts Intact

Part of the headquarters of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was gutted by a mysterious fire at the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The inferno was said to have started around 9:40am with thick plume visible above the NFF Headquarters, Abuja Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and Headquarters of NAFDAC in Zone 1.

It took more than an hour before the Federal Fire Service could put out the inferno, which caused pandemonium around the area.

NFF Office in Abuja on Fire.
NFF Office in Abuja on Fire.

The office of the general secretary and those of other principal officers of the federation was gutted. However, the federation’s account are understood to be intact.

NFF spokesman Ademola Olajire disclosed that the incident started with an electrical fault in one of the offices on the second floor.

“Some of us just arrived and were still outside the building when smoke started coming out of one of the offices on the second floor. The maintenance officers did their best to put it out but could not,” he narrated.

“We then started calling the Fire Service department and they came in good time. But then the fire had broken out and affected some offices on the left win, including the general secretary’s office and the IT Unit. However, the accounts department, which is on the right wing, as well as the president’s office, were not affected in any way.”

The incident comes on the back of a purported power tussle within the ranks of the football family ahead of the forthcoming Executive Congress.

NFF president Aminu Maigari just returned to office on Monday after Fifa had ruled his impeachment by some members of the executive committee as unlawful.

Maigari chaired an ExCo meeting at the office on Tuesday, with a faction of its members- led by vice-president Mike Umeh (acting president during Maigari’s absence- staying away.