Fire Burnt Down Ebonyi Magistrate Court

 

By Adaeze Onuora, Abakaliki

The Magistrate Court 1 in Ebonyi State high court, has gutted by Fire 

Sources from the court said that the incident happened on Thursday, June 1 at midnight.

The information has it that the fire razed the Magistrate Court 1 completely with exhibits and other vital documents burnt to ashes.

Properties of law offenders confiscated by the court which were parked inside the court, were also burnt by the fire.

A Magistrate who did not want his name in print said the fire  burnt building, said he and some staff of the state high court who are living around the Magistrate Court premises, were woken up from sleep by the fire.

“We were woken up by the inferno. We are living close to the court premises. We  came there, we started using our fire extinguishers to quench the fire. I shot one of the extinguishers and the fire exploded and got more serious.

“By this time, our security men had run away. We contacted the state fire service and they came and help us to quench the fire. Before their arrival, we have exhausted our fire extinguishers”, he stated.

Nnenna Onuoha, Chief Registrar of the state high court who confirmed the incident, said the estimate of what was destroyed by the fire is about N40 million.

“On the early hours of June and that should be on 3rd June, we got calls from our people living at the magistrate quarters that our court has been gutted by fire.

“We rushed to the court and saw that the court was truly razed by fire we started asking what could be the cause of the incident. They told us that the fire was from the transformer, and they said the fire came out from the transformer.

“Rescuers called Ebonyi State Fire Service and they came and help us to quench the fire. As you can see, the building was completely gutted by fire.