Abuja, May 5 (PTI ): Fire burnt down the building of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Lagos, but no casualty was reported.

However, observers believe some vital sections like the legal department were burnt down completely. It is feared that crucial documents related to the interrogation of bank executives sacked by the central bank of Nigeria for harboring non-performing debts were destroyed. But the EFCC spokesman, Femi Babafemi said the speculation of vital documents being destroyed is “absolute falsehood”.

“The fire did not get to where vital documents that have to do with removed bank executives and their debtors were” Babafemi told PTI. Witnesses say the fire started early in the morning as a thick smoke billowing out of some offices which later turned to flames. Workers ran for their lives on noticing the flames and a nearby fire brigade came in to put it off.

The spokesman for Lagos office of EFCC Wilson Uwujaren ruled out any foul play but added “nobody can say exactly the cause of the fire now”. Uwujaren adds “during the inferno, power was being generated from a generating set and all we saw, was smoke coming out from some offices and we immediately contacted the fire brigade and the officials came and put out the fire. Nobody was hurt and we are yet to determine the extent of damage.”

But against the backdrop of speculations that the fire may have been caused by corrupt officials trying to cover up investigations, the chairman of the EFCC Farida Waziri has ordered a probe into the fire incident. The Nigerian anti-corruption body has been arresting many top politicians and businessmen who engage in corrupt transactions according to the country's law.

Last August, the body arrested 15 bankers for allowing their institutions pile up billions of dollars in bad debt. This came after the head of the central bank, Lamido Sanusi fired heads of five banks accused of mismanagement and entertaining bad debts. The EFCC gave the debtors an ultimatum to repay the money they owed the financial institutions. Last month, the body went against an ex-governor of Delta State James Ibori who was accused of embezzling his state fund when he was in power but he fled the country.