Spokesperson of the Supreme Court, Dr. Festus Akande has clarified issues concerning the cause of the fire incident that happened on the premises of the Supreme Court on Monday morning.
Akande in an interview on Arise TV on Monday said that the fire incident was caused by an electrical malfunction and not a hoodlum attack as reported in social media.
He also noted that the incident won’t have any material effect on the presidential election petition which is the main focus now.
He said, “There was a fire incident at the Supreme Court this morning and it affected just one chamber, contrary to information being peddled in social media. The court was not under any evasion from hoodlums or miscreants.
“It was as a result of an electrical malfunction. That was the preliminary investigation that we have carried out so far. Further investigation is ongoing now. We can’t say categorically what caused it but from what we found out this morning it was an electrical fault.
“Good enough the Supreme Court is well equipped with fire appliances. The staff were able to curb it immediately and were able to deploy all the fire equipment on all the floors of the court to douse the fire, even before we got help from the fire service.
On the question of whether the Court is equipped with Close Circuit Television (CCTV), he said, “Sure we have CCTV cameras. Everything is intact. If you talk of sprinklers, there is no way that we can start installing sprinklers in an old building, and that is why we have to improvise by bringing in new model gadgets that could be deployed effectively.
“We have fire blankets as well. What we’ve used very effectively is the fire extinguisher and that has resolved the problem for us that the fire didn’t affect any other chamber in the court apart from the particular one that this fire emanated from.
Speaking about possible material impact on the presidential election petition, he said, “There is no single connection, and it cannot affect anything in the court. Like I said earlier, this incident occurred in a chamber, and the chamber is equipped with computers and other equipment and a functional library being used by any Justice that occupies that chamber.
“The only thing that we can say that has been affected were books, stationery and computer equipment. Even the books are replaceable. They are hard copies and we also have an e-library. So, whatever that is lost can be placed,” he said.
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