Mother, child killed in Sokoto mystery fire

The inferno is one in a series of weird fire incidents which members of the community bemoan have continued to torment them. “The mysterious fire has occurred 48 times at one Musa Atik’s house, nine times at my house and seven times at one Sirajo’s house,” ward head of the area, Malam Muhammadu Maikusa disclosed to Daily Trust on Sunday recently.
The situation has become emotional as the ward head sobbed while narrating the ordeal of people in the area to the strange fire and appealed for assistance from all and sundry. According to him, many residents have lost all their belongings and hard-earned properties and have suffered greatly.
Former Chairman of Tureta Local Government Area of the state and member of the community, Alhaji Mande Lofa,  is  late Baraka’s father-in-law. He disclosed that they have not known peace since such unusual fire occurrences started in the area.
He recalled with nostalgia the tragedy that led to the death of his daughter in-law. According to him, over many people battled to save Baraka and her baby from the inferno but as they made a small opening on the building to enter, the fire raged scaring the people back.
Alhaji Lofa added the people heard the woman screaming and calling for help but could not do anything to save her life. “As I am talking to you now, I don’t rule out the possibility of having another outbreak since it was only three days back that the last incident occurred,” he said.
He noted that: “We are living in total fear and I even dreamt of fire incident in my sleep. In fact, it is so taunting that I had to stop my grown up children from attending Juma’at prayers in order to keep vigil in anticipation of the fire outbreak.”
But, what could be causing these infernos? Infact, the residents insisted that the fires were not caused by electrical faults as they occur mostly when there is no power supply. “Whenever there is such fire incident, there is no electricity supply in the area from PHCN. It just erupts mysteriously,” a resident, Mustapha Gidadawa said.
But when did the community started experiencing such mystifying infernos? The ward head revealed that they started recording incidents at one Sanusi Bawa’s house during the last general elections and later at the house of one Isa Danbaba.
The ward head  called on government and individuals  to come to the aid of the fire victims and  also appealed for more special prayers with a view to find lasting  solution to  the mystic inferno.