A fire outbreak at the National Assembly complex on Wednesday briefly disrupted activities and caused panic among lawmakers, legislative staff and visitors after flames erupted from the Senate wing of the complex shortly after a committee screening exercise.<\/p>\n
The incident occurred at Hearing Room 107 following the conclusion of the Senate Committee on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) screening of Dr. Zainab Marwa, the nominee representing the North-East on the commission\u2019s governing board.<\/p>\n
Eyewitnesses said smoke and flames were suddenly noticed from a section of the hearing room, triggering an emergency response by National Assembly personnel and security officials stationed within the complex.<\/p>\n
The fire was, however, brought under control within a short period, preventing it from spreading to adjoining offices and facilities. Normal legislative and administrative activities resumed shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n
Sources familiar with the incident said preliminary findings pointed to the kitchen area attached to the hearing room as the likely origin of the blaze. According to the sources, investigators are examining reports that a microwave oven may have been left switched on, resulting in overheating that could have sparked the fire. However, officials have not formally confirmed the cause.<\/p>\n
Video recordings from the scene showed National Assembly workers deploying fire extinguishers in an effort to suppress the flames before emergency responders arrived.<\/p>\n
Two senators, Asuquo Ekpenyong and Salihu Mustapha, were also reported to have joined staff members in the initial response, helping to contain the fire and prevent further damage to the facility.<\/p>\n
No casualties were recorded, and there were no reports of injuries among lawmakers, staff or visitors present at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n
The quick containment of the blaze drew commendation from observers within the National Assembly complex, with several witnesses noting that the availability of fire extinguishers and the prompt reaction of personnel helped avert what could have become a more serious emergency.<\/p>\n
The incident has once again highlighted concerns about fire safety and emergency preparedness in public institutions, particularly in high-traffic government facilities that host legislative proceedings, public hearings and committee engagements on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, journalists covering activities at the venue alleged that committee officials instructed them to delete photographs and video footage captured during the outbreak. The circumstances surrounding the directive could not be independently verified as of press time, and no official explanation had been provided.<\/p>\n
As of the time of filing this report, the management of the National Assembly had not issued an official statement detailing the extent of damage or the cause of the fire. It was also unclear whether a formal investigation had been ordered.<\/p>\n
Legislative activities at the National Assembly continued uninterrupted after the incident, while officials are expected to carry out an assessment of the affected area and determine the exact cause of the outbreak. Similar fire incidents in federal public facilities in recent years have typically been followed by technical investigations aimed at establishing the source of ignition and recommending measures to prevent future occurrences<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A fire outbreak at the National Assembly complex on Wednesday briefly disrupted activities and caused panic among lawmakers, legislative staff and visitors after flames erupted from the Senate wing of the complex shortly after a committee screening exercise. The incident occurred at Hearing Room 107 following the conclusion of the Senate Committee on the Niger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":98404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8433,65,370,1183,1701],"class_list":["post-99306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ekpenyong","tag-fire","tag-national-assembly","tag-panic","tag-screening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99307,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99306\/revisions\/99307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}