The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has given an update on the fire incident at their Abuja headquarters on Sunday morning, where they confirmed the incident, while also saying that no lives were lost, and no one was injured.
The NIS in a statement released on Monday 11th January 2021, by the Director, Press and Public Relations, Mohammed Manga, stated that the fire broke out in a part of the NIS Headquarters on Sunday morning.
According to him, the fire was put out by Federal Fire Service stationed at the premises, assisted by the fire units of the neighbouring agencies, before it could do much damage.
“No life was lost and no one was injured. The cause of the fire is being investigated. However, it affected the data management centre, especially the Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS) which enabled the agency to coordinate the movement of persons at the borders and upload information on missing and stolen passports to INTERPOL_HQ database.
No data was lost as a result of the incident and this will not affect the operation of the agency whatsoever since each border post is also independently connected to INTERPOL_HQ,” the statement said.
Mohammed Manga added that the fire incident occurred at a time the data management centre is being transferred to a new ultramodern building. “The migration will now be accelerated seamlessly”.
“NIS has in place an effective protection & security system for its data & operations facilities and will continue to offer quality services to Nigerians & foreigners alike in all areas of its mandate,” he added.