Zaria – An early morning inferno on Friday burnt down 15 classrooms, a staff room and a resource centre at the 91-year-old Barewa College in Zaria, Kaduna State.

A correspondent  who visited the school on Saturday reports that the fire destroyed all learning materials in the burnt classrooms.

Speaking with reporters, an eye-witness, Malam Mati Mati, who said he lives close to the college, said the fire which started at about 3 a.m. in the early hours of Friday lasted for more than three hours.

He said it had taken the intervention of good Samaritans to put off out the fire.

When contacted on phone, the Principal of the College, Malam Mohammed Abbass-Aliyu, who confirmed the incident, said the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.

He, however, said that a committee had been set up to determine the cause, saying that the committee was to be headed by Malam Tanimu Tanko, the Vice Principal, Academics of the college.

The principal appealed to both staff and students of the college to remain calm as necessary actions were being put in place to ensure normalcy in the college.

The dreaded Boko Haram Islamist sect has resorted to burning schools in some states in northern Nigeria as part of their bloody campaign to unleash terror in the country. (NAN)