Again, fire guts Kwara High Court, destroys documents, others

For the second time in seven months, fire has again gutted the Kwara State High Court destroying documents and other valuables in the process.

City & Crime reports of a similar incident in February which destroyed over 200 files.

It was gathered that the renovation works on the litigation office and other office equipment completely destroyed during the last incident, is yet to be completed before the latest one.

A judiciary worker told our correspondent that the fire incident occurred shortly after 8 pm on Sunday and  completely destroyed a judge chambers, housing court room 10.

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The incident, it was learnt, had raised concerns in the justice sector in the state.

The Kwara State Fire Service which confirmed the incident, said it was caused by a power surge.

The rubbles from the items destroyed in the fire included two air conditioners, a plasma television, a fan, documents, and furniture.

A statement by the service spokesman, Hassan Adekunle, said the quick response of the fire service personnel prevented further damage to the complex, which houses several courtrooms.

“Investigations revealed that the fire originated from a standing air conditioner due to a power surge,” the statement said.

City & Crime recalled that the first incident was also attributed to a power surge by the fire service.

During an inspection of the facility then, our correspondent observed that several files of concluded and ongoing cases including those since the inception of the court were burnt.

The Chief Registrar, Magistrate Ibironke Olawoyin, had described the burnt section as the engine room of the high court.

She said, “That section is the engine room of the high court. This is not about 100 or 200 cases. Our appeal cases, ongoing cases and processes that are being filed including some coming up this week. Not a single file was saved; everything was completely burnt.

“If not for the way the structure of the building was built and that most of the offices were departmentalised, it would have been more colossal.”

Former Ilorin NBA chairman, Kamaldeen Gambari, in a telephone chat with City & Crime, advised that serious steps should be taken to forestall a recurrence.

“The judiciary has not told us the files that were affected and how important they are. It is only when the burnt files are identified before we know the implications on the litigants.

“Going forward, the judiciary is an arm of government and it will not be out of place if a segment of the fire service is located within the high court premises. Also, the idea of keeping files physically by the judiciary should not be continued.

“If those files burnt now are in soft copies, nothing would have been lost, we would have just retrieved them. But as it is now, we have lost those files,” he added.