The father of the three siblings who were killed by fire outbreak in Ibadan on Friday morning, Mr. Tunde Emmanuel, 44-year-old is now helping the state Police Command to unravel the circumstances that led to the death of his children.
Emmanuel, who partly attributed the tragedy to the crisis in his marriage, described the death of his children as a mystery and an act of God.
It was reported that the three children were locked up in the home at night while their parents were not around.
Efforts by the deceased children; Glory, 14; Samuel, 8, and Darasimi, 3; to escape from the inferno were said to have failed because they could not access the alternative exit.
Emmanuel, while explaining the reasons why the children were locked up in the home at midnight on the fateful day, said he could not give the details about the incident because he was not at the scene during the fire outbreak.
The Ibadan-born estate agent, who was being interrogated by the police as of the time of filing this report, said, Christianah, his wife, was at work in a beer parlor when the tragedy struck.
“I didn’t know how it happened. Let’s just hand everything over to God. Even my neighbours could not say something cogent on how it happened. I don’t understand them. The children used to sleep at home alone. I’m not always around. I attend Celestial Christian Church of God. I went for a programme that night; it was a vigil.
“My wife went to the place where she sells beer in a store owned by her pastor. I have been at Sango Police Station since the incident happened. The police are interrogating me.”
The man, who explained that he has another woman out of wedlock, said, “there was a little misunderstanding between my wife and I when I wanted to marry another wife about a year ago. She didn’t want me to marry another wife. We tried to settle the dispute.”
Whereas sources in the community disclosed that one of Emmanuel’s in-laws had come to fetch her to Ondo State shortly after the incident occurred, her husband however dispelled the claim, saying that one of her family members took her to Ayegun-Olonde area of Ibadan.
Speaking on the incident on Saturday, the Deputy Director, Oyo State Fire Service, Mr. Moshood Adewuyi, stated, “The cause of the outbreak was electrical surge from appliances that were put on but not attended to when power was restored.
“The family lives in a room and a parlour. The fire started from the sitting room. The alternative door where the children could have used to escape had been blocked with their belongings. It was wrong for the parents to leave the children behind unattended to. They have limitation of reasoning. Nothing stopped them (the children) from going for prayers too.
We urge people to always switch off all appliances when there is no light to avoid fire outbreak.”
Credit: The Nation
