The Foreign Minister, Alhaji Mohammad Mumuni, has described the recent fire outbreak that razed down the Foreign Ministry building as a calamity of huge proportions with serious implications for the conduct of the country�s diplomatic service.
Speaking in a telephone interview from Malawi where he is presently on official duties, the minister said he received the news of the outbreak with �utter shock and dismay�, and called for a full scale enquiry to determine the cause of the fire outbreak.
�There should be a full scale inquiry to establish the exact cause or causes of this disaster to determine whether it was an act of God or an act of man,� Alhaji Mumuni stated, adding that �if it was an act of man, which man or woman and what are the motives�.
He said coming after other fire outbreaks at the Information and Energy Ministries, there should be cause for concern and recommended that the enquiry should establish whether there was any linkage between the three fire outbreaks. The minister also underlined the need for the investigators to proceed with an open mind without prejudices or biases and said �they should have a determination to do a thoroughly forensic job.�
He added that the enquiry should also cover the issue of the capacity of the ministry to deal with such emergencies as well as the presence of early warning systems as well as the ability to take pre-emptive action.
Alhaji Mumuni said he was aware that there were ongoing consultations within the government to relocate the ministry to ensure that work resumed in earnest, and indicated that it would be helpful for the Information Ministry to initiate immediate steps to restore some institutional memory to facilitate the work of the ministry.
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