A final year nursing student of the Delta State School of Nursing has been killed in a mysterious fire that engulfed her room at about 11pm burning her beyond recognition at Eku, Delta State.
The final year nursing student identified as Miss Oghenetega Oghate was said to be asleep in her room when the mystery fire that took her life started.
According to a family source who did not want his name in print, said they were told that their daughter was involved in a fire accident and that she was rushed to the hospital that night.
He said; “Oghenetega left home for school that Monday morning and in the night of that same day the father got a call that his daughter was involved in a fire accident. When they got there the girl has already been rushed to Oghara Teaching Hospital and later to University of Benin Teaching Hospital where she finally died.”
“At first the father said we should just bring her home and bury her since it was a fire accident. But on a second taught we said let us go and find out what kind of fire accident killed her. The principal of the School called us and told us that he needs our permission to report the matter to the police because what they saw at the scene of the fire accident shows that it was not an accidental fire. So he reported that matter to the Eku Police Station,” he added.
According to the family source, the family suspected foul play saying that they believed somebody set their daughter on fire because of the circumstances surrounding the fire incident.
He said when they got to house where the fire accident happened, they discovered that it was only her bed and the curtains by the window that were burnt by the fire and that her other belongs in the house were not affected by the fire.
Continuing he said; “We asked the other students in the compound what actually happened and nobody seems to know anything about the fire. It was only one person that told us that they noticed the fire at about 11pm and they had to break the door to get into the room but it was already too late as she had been completely burnt and was trying to crawl out of the room. When they came in they were trying to ask her what happened and she replied them that she does not know. Then again at the hospital when she regained consciousness the mother asked her what happened and she told her that she did not know what happened and that all she knew was that it was the fire that woke her up from sleep. She said she did not light her gas to cook anything and that she was sleeping when the fire started.”
According to investigations by our correspondent, this is not the first time such incident is happening in Eku and the police have not been able to unravel the mystery behind the two other fires or who was responsible for them.
One of the residents in the compound where the fire accident took place, told our correspondent that two months before this recent fire incident a similar fire incident was attempted in the same compound that Oghenetega was living.
Some of her classmates who spoke to us also confirmed that they also suspected foul play, noting that Oghenetega was the most brilliant student in their class and that she was such a humble girl in the school who does not look for trouble.
A resident in Eku who gave his name as Ochuko James, told our correspondent that the recent fire accident has proven that somebody was responsible for setting the people on fire and making it look like an accident.
Mr. Ochuko said; “This is not the first time that this kind of incident has happened before in this community. This type of incident had happened twice before now and nobody seems to take it serious. But with what we are seeing today, it only shows that this kind of thing is not good for the image of this community. I would want to the police to investigate this matter seriously and find the culprits involved in this dastardly acts.”
“It is hoped that the police are going to look into the matter with the sole aim of finding out the true cause of the fire that claimed the life of this innocent girl. This girl was a very good girl and she comes from a family of Jehovah Witnesses. And it is a great loss to the state nursing school and to the community at large. So this case should not be allowed to be swept under the carpet like the rest,” he added.
