By Johnbosco  Agbakwuru
A mysterious fire outbreak has turned the Appeal Court Calabar which was the first Supreme Court building in Nigeria into a debris.

Meanwhile, Senate Leader, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, has described the inferno as a tragic and national loss, saying it was not just a court building that was destroyed but a history that was in ruin.

The fire disaster which reportedly started around 1am, yesterday, brought down all the chambers of the Justices of the Court and the court hall as well as destroying all the documents and furniture in the affected areas.

Speaking to SaturdayVanguard in her office, the Deputy Chief Registrar, a lady who refused to disclose her name said that the cause of the fire outbreak had not been established, but that investigations were ongoing.

She said two civilian security officers that were on duty at the time of the disaster had been invited by the police for questioning.

The Deputy Chief Registrar who said she got a distress call over the disaster, got to the court premises about 2 am when the men of the fire service were battling to put off the fire so that it could not spread to the governor’s lodge that share fence with the court.

She said all vital documents in the chambers were destroyed and that most of the cases going on in the court were election petition matters that had been brought to the appellate court.

Commenting after assessing the level of damage, Chief Ndoma-Egba said, “What you see here is not just a court but the history of  the judiciary in Nigeria, in fact, the history of the judiciary in West Africa in ruins, because at some point in time, this court which has become a monument housed the West African Court of Appeal.

“It was also the first Supreme Court of the Southern Protectorate and for a short while, a Supreme Court of Nigeria. So it is not just a Court, but a monument. I feel a personal sense of loss because for 2y years of my life in law practice, I was in and out of this court.

“If you are looking for anything relating to the stories of the nation, the easiest place to find it is the judiciary, so, the loss we see here is unquantifiable,” Ndoma-Egba said.

Also speaking, Director General of the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Dr. Vincent Aquah who said he was at the scene of the inferno for severity assessments and to ensure that there was no element of threat left behind said what happened to the court was a total damage.

Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Joe Agi described it as enormous damage and a complete destruction of the court building, “It is a shame,” he said.

Already two out of the five persons that were supposed to be on duty when the fire outbreak occurred were still with the state Police Command as at the time of writing the report. It was gathered that two policemen and another civilian security man were not on duty when the incident took place.

The Appeal Court Calabar had been in existence before the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorate of 1914. Among the things destroyed was the seat where Justice Weber sat.