By Bose Adelaja
“I was busy washing my clothes in front of the house while my husband was taking his siesta in one of the rooms. We could not go out because of the nationwide strike/protest called by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, the Trade Union congress, TUC and civil society groups.

Before we knew what was going on,we saw was that our building has been engulfed by fire. The fire emanated from tear gas canister fired by members of the Nigeria Police Force to disperse the protesting crowd”.

That was how Mrs. Musili Anifowose narrated the fate that befell the entire family on the fourth day of the week-long  protestagainst the removal of fuel subsidy. Prior to the disaster, the Anifowoses lived in a one-storey building at Owu/NTA in the Totoro  area of Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital.

*Carcass of the burnt building & inset of Mr. & Mrs Anifowose.

Mr. Lasisi Anifowose and his wife who are both octogenarians, said they lost all their earnings and household property to the inferno.

The razed property, according to the couple served as the family house and their only source of livelihood. Mr. Anifowose retired as a bricklayer while his aging wife, a food vendour, lost her shop to the the expansion of road project being constructed by the Governor Ibikunle Amosun-led government.

Vanguard Metro, VM, learnt that the  inferno was caused by tear-gas allegedly fired by the Police to disperse the surging protesters. Unknown to the Policemen, the tear-gas strayed into the upper sitting room of the octogenarians’ building and ignited a fire which spread like a whirlwind for the number of hours it lasted.

VM observed that the displaced family is now taking refuge in the charred rubble of the house while depending on the goodwill of neighbours for their daily survival.

Narrating her ordeal to VM, Madam Anifowose who spoke in Yoruba, said that one of the tear-gases fired by the police strayed into the upper sitting room of the building via the window and caused the fire that gutted the entire property.

She claimed that the incident occurred around 3p.m as she was washing clothes outside the building. This was  before the arrival of the Policemen who fired the tear-gas with the aim of dispersing the protesters, but it went through the window and landed on some properties in the upper sitting room.

’’The first thing that came to my mind was to go in search of my husband and children. I also raised an alarm to inform people that the police had fired a “bullet” into the house. My husband was fast  asleep in one of the rooms up-stairs when the house caught fire.

Before I returned from looking for my children, the entire house had already being engulfed by smoke and nobody could enter either through the front or the rear entrances. Before we could do anything, the house had been completely gutted by fire.” she said.

Narrating his own side of the story, Pa Lasisi stated that prior to going in for his siesta, the miscreants had tormented  passers-by whom they extorted money from. They police had apparently exhausted their patience as all entreaties to the protesters to disperse fell on deaf ear.

Angered by the recalcitrance of the protesters, the Police uitilsed their tear gas in a bid to disperse them from the road blocks they mounted and the burn-fires they made to prevent people from using the road.

“This was going on for a while before I finally went to bed. I  woke up only to discover that the entire house has been enveloped with smoke. I just managed to find a way out before some people carried me. All I saw later was that my house has been razed down,” he cried.

VM was told that no member of the family could take any material out of the building throughout the period the fire lasted.

Efforts made by VM to get the reaction of the Ogun State government proved abortive as an aide to Governor Ibikunle Amosun said the governor was not aware of the incident. Similarly, the Ogun State Police command whose officers allegedly threw the tear gas that ignited the inferno, could not be reached at press time.