General
How to Prevent Fire Outbreaks in High-Risk Buildings—Eaton
By Adedapo Adesanya
A top power management company, Eaton, has provided some pointers that can help prevent fire outbreaks in high-risk buildings which have increased in the last year.
According to Kunmi Odunoku, Marketing Manager for Eaton in West Africa, demographic changes mean that “we are building larger, taller, and more complex buildings to live, work and spend our leisure time in.”
While it is true that fire safety has improved with the installation of devices such as smoke detectors and alarms, the impact of a fire is now potentially far more serious than it has ever been.
According to Odunoku, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to fire prevention, suppression or evacuation, a thorough risk assessment issued on a case-by-case basis will suggest appropriate measures to be taken.
“It is no longer good enough to hide behind regulations or standards, which should be seen as a minimum requirement. Building owners and developers should hold themselves to a higher standard of safety and do more to prevent a tragedy in high-risk buildings,” the senior company official said.
Incidents such as the recent fire outbreak under the Eko bridge reinforce how infernos can result in serious damage or worse – the loss of life. Such incidents often result in reputational damage for the organizations and individuals involved that may escalate to a clamour for those responsible to face charges of corporate liability or manslaughter in the case of loss of properties or lives.
Regardless of the reputational risk, it is surely the moral responsibility of building owners and operators to ensure that modern buildings housing hundreds or even thousands of people are safe for the occupants.
“One problem building occupants face is understanding who is responsible for their safety, and in this, there is a danger of simply avoiding the issue. So, to be clear I believe that building owners or operators must ensure that appropriate safety measures are in place.
“Simply adhering to standard building regulations is not a sufficient safety measure,” Odunoku stated.
In a recent study, FM Global found that 70 per cent of business owners feel that following building regulations will protect their property, as the organization points out “this is simply not their purpose”.
Such an approach takes no account of the different risks faced in different types of buildings or by different occupants. The only sensible approach to take is to conduct a thorough risk assessment of the building and then implement appropriate safeguards.
Changing the nature of risk
The nature of fire risks in buildings changes as our society changes. By 2050 the UN estimates that two-thirds of people will be urbanites living, working, and spending leisure time in buildings designed to hold hundreds if not thousands of people.
This means we will increasingly build upwards. There are already a staggering number of buildings in cities around the world that are over 100 meters tall. As buildings get taller the number of mixed-use buildings will also rise rapidly. Typically, in taller mixed-use buildings, the lower floors house shops and restaurants while the upper floors are reserved for residential purposes. This means that due to the nature of the use, lower floors are unoccupied and unsupervised in the middle of the night, while those people on higher floors could well be asleep should the worst happen.
Risk assessment
There is no single answer to mitigating the risks of a fire in a building and for high-risk buildings, the regulations are simply not enough. We advocate a three-step process to help ensure ongoing safety:
- Identify the specific risks in your building. You may decide to employ or engage experts to do the risk assessment.
- Select and design systems and solutions addressing the specific risks identified.
- Test and review these solutions regularly especially if there are changes to building use.
Having conducted a thorough risk assessment, you can then make an informed choice on what action to take. Breaking this down further you need to think about prevention, controlling a fire, detection, and how you will alert occupants and evacuate or guide people away from danger.
While education and technology can help prevent the worst from happening as The Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat observes: “The only true way to stop a fire from happening is to remove the humans and the combustible materials from buildings. You can apply good fire safety education and management, but, fires start, what happens next is what matters.”
Preventing a fire is about building design, such as compartmentation to help prevent or slow down the spread and also installing technology such as sprinkler systems. Sadly, too many developers and building owners dismiss sprinklers as not cost-effective and prefer to spend their money on air-conditioning or intelligent lighting systems.
Alerting and evacuating
If the fire does spread, there is generally a short window to alert and evacuate building occupants. This is made even more complicated if people are asleep or are disabled and are not aware of an alert or need assistance.
There is a lot of technology available to alert building occupants and instruct them or guide them to safety. The important thing is to be aware of such technology or employ someone who can advise you appropriately and above all not cut corners to save cost. While we hope that it never happens to us, a fire in a complex building could be catastrophic if you do not plan properly. It is time to take fire safety seriously so that people do not lose their homes, places of work or worse their lives. If you are a building owner, it is your moral duty to do all that you can.
Eaton has teamed up with several fire safety organizations from around the world to produce a whitepaper called “Fire Safety in High-Risk Buildings – preventing the next tragedy.” You can download it from Eaton’s website.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has sought an enhanced collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in areas including asset tracing, recovery, and management.
This was hinged on a recent visit by the chief executive of the corporation, Mr Thompson Oludare Sunday, to the chairman of the anti-graft agency, Mr Ola Olukoyede.
Speaking at the occasion, Mr Sunday stressed that the visit offered an opportunity for formal engagement with the EFCC for further collaboration between the two organizations.
“We aim to further strengthen our collaboration, deepen institutional synergy and explore additional avenues for mutual support in the pursuit of national financial system stability. The EFCC has been our partner and we want this to continue. We look forward to an expanded and more impactful partnership between our two esteemed institutions,” Mr Sunday said.
Further in his request, he stated that the NDIC sought to leverage on the EFCC’s technical expertise in asset tracing, recovery and management, particularly in cases involving debtors of banks in liquidation.
“Your experience has and will continue to greatly enhance our recovery efforts. Additionally, we have that strategic responsibility for prosecuting individuals whose actions contribute to the failure of banks. We therefore seek closer collaboration with the Commission in this critical area.”
On his part, Mr Olukoyede, remarked that both agencies of government have a longstanding record of collaboration, pledged to amplify the working relationship.
He emphasized that the NDIC and EFCC are like inseparable twins, working together for years. He reminded the NDIC’s boss that the EFCC had been supporting his agency in the area of investigation, while the NDIC had been supporting the EFCC in the area of training.
“So, there has been this mutually beneficial relationship between NDIC and EFCC and we never intend to stop. We’ll continue to take it to a higher level, and continue to strengthen it,” he said.
Mr Olukoyede reiterated that his policy directive was to stimulate the Nigerian economy with the anti-graft war, leverage productive entities and enhance the capacities of other government agencies through needful interventions.
“One of the things I promised when I resumed was to use the instrumentality of this work to stimulate the economy, not just to make noise all over the place; to strengthen and encourage the internal processes of entities that are doing well and design fraud risk assessment for them. That was what necessitated my establishing a new department called Fraud Risk Assessment and Control.
“We don’t have to always wait for money to be stolen. Let us work with you and stakeholders in the economy to fine tune our system and make sure that we clean our financial ecosystem. You’re a key player in that area, and we are always willing to collaborate with you,” he added.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s electricity grid collapsed again on Tuesday morning, cutting power supply nationwide after generation and load allocation dropped to zero across all distribution companies,.
The incident marks the second recorded collapse of the national power grid in 2026, the second as well in five days following last Friday’s inclident.
This also means the third time in one month after a similar failure on December 29, 2025.
The system failure occurred at about 10:50 a.m, when electricity allocation to all electricity distribution companies fell to zero. Data from the grid operator showed that power generation plunged to zero megawatts, triggering a total shutdown of supply across the country.
A review of the national distribution load profile at the time of the incident indicated that all distribution companies, including Abuja, Eko, Benin, Enugu, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kano, Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Yola, recorded zero load, confirming a nationwide outage.
All 23 power generation plants connected to the national grid reportedly lost output during the incident, resulting in zero power allocation to each of the 11 electricity distribution companies.
As of time of filing this report, no official confirmation has been provided by the government authorities.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Nigerian military on Monday, January 26, 2026, confirmed that some of its personnel actually attempted to overthrow the government of President Bola Tinubu in October 2025.
It was earlier speculated that the October 1 parade last year was abruptly cancelled due to an alleged attempt to remove Mr Tinubu from office by some members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN), with 16 persons arrested over the issue.
Providing an update on the matter today, the Director of Information for the Defence Headquarters in Abuja, Major General Samaila Uba, said investigations have “identified a number of the officers with allegations of plotting to overthrow the government” and would be “formally arraigned before appropriate military judicial panel to face trial.”
“It would be recalled that the Defence Headquarters issued a press statement in October 2025 regarding the arrest of sixteen officers over acts of indiscipline and breaches of service regulations. The Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) wishes to inform the general public that investigations into the matter have been concluded and the report forwarded to appropriate superior authority in line with extant regulations.
“The comprehensive investigation process, conducted in accordance with established military procedures, has carefully examined all circumstances surrounding the conduct of the affected personnel. The findings have identified a number of the officers with allegations of plotting to overthrow the government which is inconsistent with the ethics, values and professional standards required of members of the AFN.
“Accordingly, those with cases to answer will be formally arraigned before appropriate military judicial panel to face trial in accordance with the Armed Forces Act and other applicable service regulations. This ensures accountability while upholding the principles of fairness and due process.
“The AFN reiterates that measures being taken are purely disciplinary and part of ongoing institutional mechanisms to preserve order, discipline and operational effectiveness within the ranks. The Armed Forces remain resolute in maintaining the highest standards of professionalism, loyalty and respect for constitutional authority,” the statement read.
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