AEDC Explains Cause Of Fire Incident In Niger Commiserates With Relatives Of Deceased Persons

Olabode Adaramola

The Management of Abuja Electricity Distribution Plc (AEDC) has said that the fire incident that led to the death of a mother and her three children in a residence in Bosso Local Government Area of Niger State, was as a result of fire outbreak caused by a boiling ring and not electrical surge as reported in a section of the media( National Wire  not included).

Some online news platforms had claimed that the fire incident, which occurred in the night of Monday, 15th October, 2018, in Angwan Sarkin Hausawa area of Bosso, Minna , the State capital was sparked off by a strong electricity surge from the public power grid to the neighbourhood.

This was contained in a Press statement issued on Thursday  and made availabke to newsmen in Minna,  the State capital,  by Oyebode Babs Fadipe, the  General Manager, Corporate Communications, the AEDC, Mr. Oyebode Babs Fadipe.

The AEDC Boss stated further  that preliminary investigations by a fact finding team dispatched to the area immediately after the incident revealed that the inferno occurred because the victims left a boiling ring ON in the sitting room of their single room apartment during an outage, adding that  by the time power supply was restored to the area, the victims were allegedly  apparently asleep, thereby resulting in the conflagration that engulfed the whole apartment and killed the four deceased after the boiling ring became red hot and caught fire.

The statement further explained  that the AEDC’s fact finding team, which was led by Engr. Mohammed Ainoko Sule, who is also the Company’s Head of Protection, Control and Maintenance, stated that the incident had nothing to do with a power surge, as it was being errorneously speculated in some quarters .

While also commiserating with the family of the deceased and other members of the Bosso community, the AEDC’s Director of Risk, Mr. Collins Chabuka seized  the opportunity to appeal to members of the media to always cross check their facts before publication.