KATSINA: Fire guts Assembly complex

BUT for the Sergeant-At-Arm who went into the legislative chamber to clean it up the whole State House of Assembly would have been razed by an overnight fire today.

The fire was said to have, however, burnt the upper chamber of the Assembly before the Sergeant-At-Arm enter the building.

Members of the Assembly hold plenary sessions inside the chamber.

Explaining how the incident was detected, the House Deputy Chief Whip, Salisu Rimaye, said a member of staff, the Sergeant-At-Arm, who wanted to tidy up the chamber this morning, opened its doors only to find out that the whole place had been gutted and raised the alarm.

Rimaye, however, said the root cause of the incident is unknown, adding that a team of electricians had begun processes to ascertain its cause.

He added that the fire extinguishers in the assembly were initially used to curtail the fire before men of the state fire service joined in putting it out.

Rimaye said no life was lost in the incident.
Governor Aminu Masari, who visited the House of Assembly complex to assess the damage, expressed shock at the incident.