HURIWA Suspects Foul Play in Sabon Gari, Kano's Market Fire; Seeks Investigation and Compensation
The hypothesis that the inferno that engulfed a section of the SABON gari Kano State market was mysterious has been rejected as speculative and unscientific just as the Kano State government has been tasked to uncover the circumstances that led to the early morning fire incident in the mostly Southern dominated businesses in the Northern commercial capital.
A pro-Democracy Non-governmental organization -HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA ) said the striking coincidence of the sudden inferno at the Kano market dominated by traders from Southern Nigeria at a time that unsubstantiated stories were making the rounds in the social media of a suspected touching of a part of the Onitsha Mosque which turned out to be false makes it imperative that a probe is carried out to determine the exact causes of the fire outbreak with the hope of putting measures in place to forestall future fire outbreaks.
Similarly, HURIWA has called for a full investigation of the causes of the fire incident at a Girls High Boarding School in Kano State few days back which unfortunately led to the loss of lives and destruction of properties.
HURIWA commended the Kano State government for the prompt decision to rebuild the lost properties in the school even as the group said the Kano State government is under obligation to protect the lives and property of citizens living within Kano and should consider paying compensation to the victims of the two fire incidents.
HURIWA condemned the hastily packaged media report which attributed the cause of the inferno in the SABON Gari market to mysterious sources.
In a statement signed jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, said
“it’s impossible for a fire incident to have happened mysteriously since scientifically there can't be a fire incident without a practical cause. Branding the cause of the Kano market fire to some mysterious causes as presented by some media reports is to say the least unfortunate and highly speculative. ”
"We believe that the fire that gutted over fifty shops at popular ‘Sabon Gari’ market in Kano, Kano State must have a sinister foundation given the sinister coincidence of the time it happened barely few hours after some false reports spread of a fire incident near the Onitsha central Mosque which happened on the day armed military and police operatives used violence to quell the otherwise largely peaceful protests by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra demanding the unconditional release if their founder Mr. Nnamdi Kanu".
HURIWA recalled that reporters on ground had filed a report claiming that an overwhelming fire continuously razed shops and anything on its way, while fire fighters were doing everything possible to quench it just as it queried how anyone can just dismiss the cause of this clearly monumental inferno to some mysterious causes.
"Government is obliged to protect the livelihoods of citizens residing and engaging in legitimate businesses. Let the causes of that inferno be uncovered so those responsible are prosecuted to prevent reoccurrence. "
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