Day Minna orphanage went up in flames

off Bay Hospital Road is alleged to have been set on fire by yet-to-be identified people in the early hours of January 23. The attack came barely a few weeks after the anti-fuel subsidy removal protest that turned violent in the state capital.   Weekly Trust gathered that prior to the arson the home was […]

off Bay Hospital Road is alleged to have been set on fire by yet-to-be identified people in the early hours of January 23. The attack came barely a few weeks after the anti-fuel subsidy removal protest that turned violent in the state capital.

 

Weekly Trust gathered that prior to the arson the home was accommodating about 100 children, mostly orphans and less-privileged. Investigation further revealed that virtually all the property in the home, estimated at millions of naira, were consumed by the raging inferno which  engulfed the orphanage at about 10am.

The attack was said to be the third in a series of such incidents. Two attacks were previously carried out on the home through an uncompleted building beside it sometime late last year. However, the quick intervention of the occupants of the missionary home, with the help of other sympathizers from neighboring houses on the street, reportedly saved the situation. Although no life was lost in the attacks, the arsonists succeeded in razing down the entire building. Owing to the severe destruction, the orphans living in the home were said to have taken refuge in the houses of some volunteers.

Narrating his ordeal, the State Mission Field Coordinator of Missionary Alliance for Africa, the proprietor of the orphanage, Pastor Isaac Ogwu, told Weekly Trust that there were several fruitless attempts to set the home ablaze by the unknown arsonists in the past. He said he, with other occupants of the home, have been living in peace with their neighbors for many years, until last Sunday’s arson incident. “Residents woke up to find one of the missionary’s motorcycles parked within the premises of the home burnt by unknown persons,” he said.

According to Ogwu, the fire set on some mattresses in front of the house woke members of the home that fateful Monday morning. “The children and everybody in the house had to rush in to put off the fire, only for the arsonists to come back and set the entire house ablaze.”

The state police command’s public relations officer, ASP Richard Oguche told Weekly Trust that two people were arrested in connection with the attack on the missionary home and that the suspects are currently being questioned. He added that the state’s Field Mission Coordinator of the home had reported earlier attacks on the home, but he was not able to identify any person in connection with the attacks, so no arrest could be made. “But on close investigations, we suspect that the arsonists might have been invading the orphanage through an uncompleted building located besides the missionary home,” Oguche said.

Oguche said that is why two security guards believed to be foreign nationals were arrested in the uncompleted building and are being questioned.