Fire has gutted the private residence of the Minister of State of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr Mariya Mahmoud, in the Asokoro area of Abuja.

It was gathered that the minister’s house was gutted by fire on Sunday, February 25, 2024.

The incident was confirmed by the Acting Director of the FCT Fire Service, Amiola Adebayo.

Adebayo disclosed that the first floor of the building was completely razed by the fire.

He said: “The fire was discovered at about 9:45 a.m. We received a running call at about 10:13 a.m., so we followed the person who came to call us to the fire scene.

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“All of them were on the ground floor. They did not discover the fire on time, and they didn’t call the Fire Service. It was a running call that came to us.

“From our findings, they say they called the Federal Fire Service, but they didn’t respond on time, that’s when the running call came to our office.

“On reaching there, we saw that the first floor, the upper floor was completely engulfed in fire. So what we could do is just to prevent the fire from spreading to the ground floor, and the adjacent structures. No lives lost.”

Adebayo added that the cause of the fire at the minister’s residence in Abuja was yet to be ascertained.

Mahmoud has however yet to speak on the incident as of the time of filing this report.

The Star