THE Nigeria Immigration Service office in Ibaka, Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State was razed by fire, which occurred around 3pm on Thursday.
The inferno is said to have destroyed arms and ammunition, uniforms of the service personnel, mobile phones, and other office equipment.
Apart from the Immigration office, the fire also reduced to ashes other houses, goats, hundreds of outboard engines, generators, fishing nets, and freezers worth millions of naira.
A Senior Immigration Assistant, Mr. Umana Odudu, who looked at the ground, where the office was situated helplessly, narrated that if not for God, they would have lost their lives.
Odudu stated that the inferno came as a dream as he was in the office when his senior officer, who was outside, shouted at him to run out of the office as fire was razing the building.
“We did not pick anything, even a pin out of the office. The fire destroyed our arms and ammunition, uniforms, fans, and others. The clothe you are seeing me in is the only property with me. Just like a dream, we lost everything within a moment,” he said.
Some of those affected told Southern City News that they lost property worth millions of naira to the inferno.
A victim, Mr. Samuel Esin, said he invested about N2.5m in his business, which went up in flames in the twinkling of an eye.
He said, “We did not know how the fire started, but from the information we gathered, it started from the home of a woman who was trying to dry fish. The swiftness with which the inferno raised buildings with no victims being able to salvage a single property is unimaginable.
“As for me, I do not know how we are going to start a new life. The source of my income worth millions of naira has been destroyed. It is now we need government help. We do not want to take into militancy to care for our families. We are a people with conscience. We simply need help now.”
The village head of Ibaka, Chief A. A. Etifit, said the houses, which were built with thatched roofs and walls increased the speed and intensity of the fire.
Etifit told Southern City News in Ibaka on Friday that he had passed an order that no single house in Ibaka henceforth must be erected with thatched roofs or walls.
“The speed and intensity of the inferno was caused by thatched houses. I have given an order on Friday that no new building in Ibaka must be with thatched roofs or walls,” he emphasised.
The monarch, however, decried the attitude of fire service personnel in Ibaka, even as he observed that the fire servicemen left their vehicle in Ibaka while they resided in Oron.
According to him, before the fire servicemen could leave Oron on event of fire disaster for Ibaka, the whole community might have been burnt. Punch
