Members of the Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ile-Ife community are in
confusion over the cause of a fire
outbreak that engulfed a room in one of
the school’s hostels on Wednesday.
While the students claimed that the
outbreak was not caused by electrical
spark or cooking, officials of the school
and fire fighters at the scene said the fire
was not as a result of explosion as the
students claimed.
It was learnt that the fire outbreak
occurred at Block Seven, room 107 of the
Awolowo Hall around 9.50pm, damaging
beds and other household items in the
room.
Eyewitnesses said it took the intervention
of both the students, hostels’ warders
and fire fighters to stop the fire from
escalating.
The students, who were suspicious of the
fire, said the school management had
refused to supply power to the hall of
residence since the school was shut last
month.
One of them, identified simply as Nat
said, “The cause of the fire is a mystery
to us. We cannot believe that it was not
an explosive. Most of us had gone to
watch the football match between
Argentina and Netherland in another hall
when we saw smoke.
“There has been no light in the university
for almost a month, so it cannot be the
cause. Our thought is that the
management planted an explosive to
scare us out of the hostel since we have
refused to go after the school was shut
down.”
An occupant of the building, who
identified himself simply as Ade,
explained that it was impossible for the
students to cook in the hostel because
neither potable water nor electricity was
supplied to them.
“After we put the fire out, we discovered
that the cause looked more like an
explosion. I can categorically say that
there was no electricity and no one was
cooking. How can we even cook when
there is no water and power? We have
been buying cooked food for
consumption.”
However, the Public Relations Officer of
the University, Mr. Abiodun Olarewaju,
faulted the accusation against the
management of the school.
He explained that it was impossible for
the management of the University to
destroy the institution’s property since no
student was expected to be on campus.
He said, “We have told students to vacate
their halls of residence. We are not
expecting any students to be in the
school. The school has been shut down by
the Senate due to the unruly
demonstration of our students over the
increase in fee.
“It is illogical and unreasonable for the
school management to deliberately
cause fire in its own institution. That is
just propaganda. The VC is too fatherly
to harm any of the students. The
management cannot cause fire outbreak
for any reason. People should please
disregard that.”

source: www.punchng.com/