The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has described the fire that gutted parts of the Federal Ministry of Finance as “Government Magic” which may be a sinister attempt to conceal some secrets regarding massive looting of public fund.
HURIWA alleged that the Federal Ministry of Finance lacks transparency and accountability in the handling of public finances, reminding Nigerians that there are lots of questions bordering on “lack of transparency that are yet to be satisfactorily answered by officials of the Finance ministry including the alleged expenditure of over N3 billion without budgetary approval and appropriation”.
The rights group said it is unimaginable that such a strategic ministry, housing sensitive financial transactional documents, can be so criminally set ablaze and Nigerians are being fed with “nebulous and laughable explanation on the cause of the fire incident.”
In a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA predicted that “with just few months to expected handing over to another elected federal administration, it is expected that more deliberate infernos may occur so as to hide evidence to trace any financial malfeasance being committed now”.
The rights group called for vigilance by Nigerians alleging that the heads of security agencies may have been compromised.
HURIWA regretted that Nigerians have now got to a stage whereby nobody cares any longer whether public and civil servants burn all federal institutions down because for all of those fire incidents, Nigerians did not manifest any collective sense of indignation.
It can be recalled that fire had gutted part of a building at the Federal Ministry of Finance located in the Central Business District, Abuja. Black smoke was seen billowing from a part of the building, following the fire outbreak on Wednesday morning.
While advocating independent forensic investigations of all the recent fires in public institutions, HURIWA said the fire outbreak at the Finance ministry is just the latest of many that have affected government offices in Abuja.
