Edo State Government will set up a commission of enquiry into the circumstances surrounding the early morning inferno that razed the state Ministry of Higher Education offices in Benin City.
Governor Adams Oshiomhole disclosed this yesterday when he went to the ministry for on-the-spot assessment of the extent of damage.
According to the Governor, “it seems to me that there might be a case of arson. Somebody must have chosen for one reason or the other to destroy some documents for whatever purpose for which we don’t readily know.
“If there was no light at the material time, then the question of possible electrical fault does not arise and it is possible that somebody had planted something, maybe to burn the place to destroy some evidence or something.”
Oshiomhole added, “I think the thing to do is to set an enquiry to establish what went wrong, at least to prevent further occurrence and to find out those who might be behind the dastardly act. It is very unfortunate,”
He added that “one lesson we should learn from this is that we should not keep important documents on the last floor of a storey building.”
Briefing the Governor earlier, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mrs. Gladys Idahor said only one security guard was at his duty post instead of two at the time of the incident.
According to the Permanent Secretary, “the security guard said he observed smoke coming from one side of the building and he rushed to invite people to assist in putting out the fire. The fire brigade was invited and they did their best to put out the fire”.
