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By Sam Tyav, Makurdi
A mysterious fire has gutted over 300 houses in Jibili village, Wannune, home place of Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, rendering thousands of residents homeless and property worth millions of naira destroyed.
The unusual fire outbreak started on Friday with residents initially believing that it was not capable of reducing houses to ashes the way it eventually did.
Those who were around successfully put it off when it started.
But flickers of the fire rose afresh and then grew on Saturday, causing serious destruction to the residents.
A resident, Moses Answa Agule while narrating the incident, stated that he had left his house to go to Wannune when he got a phone call informing him that the house was on fire.
The victim added that he had to run back to solicit help from some neighbours who helped in putting off the fire, but few minutes after he had prepared and left for the market square, he received another phone call with the caller informing him that many more houses had caught fire.
According to him, all the roofs of available thatched houses were pushed down by sympathisers to avoid the fire from spreading, but sadly they still caught fire –a situation that sparked greater chaos for residents and neighbours.
A visit by People&Politics to the scene of the fire incident showed that about 100 households were affected by the disaster even as over 300 houses were reduced to ashes in the inferno.
The cause of the fire is still unknown.
The two-day fire stopped on Saturday following the intervention of some elders in the community.
Other victims of the inferno who also spoke said they did not know the cause of the strange fire and lamented that their sources of livelihood had been destroyed with hunger staring them harshly in the face.
The victims noted that they had harvested their crops and stored them away only for the fire to consume everything.
Another victim who identified himself as John informed that he sold some of his farm produce and raised some money for school fees of his children, adding that both the money and the farm produce were consumed in the unusual fire.
He appealed to governments at all levels to come to their aid to cushion their sufferings.
Efforts to speak with the Tarka Local Government Council Chairman, Raphael Yenge on the issue failed as he did not pick his calls or respond to text messages sent to him.
*PHOTO CAPTION: Houses burning in the community.
