Residents of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife community were on Wednesday left in confusion over the cause of fire outbreak that engulfed a room in one of its hostels.
Students claimed that the outbreak couldn't have been caused by electricity nor cooking while fire fighters at the scene assured that neither bomb nor cracker exploded.
According to the students, the school management had refused to supply power to the hall of residence since the school was shut last month and one of them said “The cause of the fire still remained a mystery to us. We cannot still believe that it was not either a bomb or an explosive. The walls are very strong and mere fire would not have penetrated into it. Most of us had gone to watch the football match between Argentina and Netherland in another hall when we saw smoke. There has been no light in the university for a long time, so it cannot be the cause. Our thought is that the management planted an explosive or a bomb to scare us out of the hostel since we have refused to go after its order.”
Another student who resides in the building said “After we took care of the fire, it doesn’t look like it was a fire outburst; it looked more like an explosion. I can categorically say that there was no electricity and no one was cooking. How can we even cook when there is no water and power? We have been buying cooked food for consumption.”
While students claim this was an attack on them the Public Relations Officer of the University, Mr. Abiodun Olarewaju faulted the accusation explaining that it was impossible for the Vice Chancellor of the University to unleash fire on the institution’s property because no student was expected to be on campus.
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