Fire on Monday evening razed a section of the Podium Block at the Rivers State Secretariat Complex in Port Harcourt, destroying properties.
The affected area includes the section that houses the Rivers State Pension Board.
The Head of Service, Iyingi Brown, in a voice note sent to Channels Television, attributed the incident to an electrical fault.
She said firefighters from the State Fire Service, Federal Fire Service, and the military jointly battled and eventually extinguished the fire.
The incident occurred just days after Governor Siminalayi Fubara dissolved the Rivers State Pension Board without giving any reason for the action.
It also followed the governor’s recent warning to permanent secretaries who, according to him, acted below civil service standards during the period of emergency rule in the state.
Fubara had stated that such records could be used against the erring officers at the appropriate time.
Although no official link has been established between the board’s dissolution and the fire incident, the timing has raised public curiosity about whether the blaze was a coincidence or an attempt to destroy vital documents.
The police and the state government are expected to conduct a thorough investigation to determine the exact cause of the fire.
