Nigerian troops take position during a demonstration by All Progressives Congress (APC) party supporters calling for the cancellation of the presidential election in Port Harcourt in the Rivers State on March 29, 2015. Thousands of supporters of Nigeria’s main opposition party demonstrated in the southern state of Rivers, calling for the cancellation of elections locally because of alleged irregularities. AFP PHOTO
By Gabriel Enogholase
BENIN—VISION impaired Mrs. Nekpen Obasohan, wife of Mr. Jeff Obasohan, the tenant who was alleged to have set his landlord, Pa Joseph Iyen, aged 83, ablaze in his residence on Uwa Street, Benin City, in Oredo Local Government Area, Edo State, weekend, has said that her husband was not responsible for the fire incident that occured in the house.
Mrs. Obasohan, who was with the family members of her husband, including their children, told newsmen at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Press Centre, Benin, that she, her husband and their children were all asleep when they heard shouts from neighbours alerting them that their apartment was on fire.
She said: “We were sleeping and my husband was not feeling fine. At 4 a.m., we heard our neighbours shouting ‘fire, fire’ behind the door of our apartment and because of my poor sight, I was groping from one place to the other and I did not know what to do and people helped to put the fire out by pouring water on it.
“I don’t know who was responsible for the mysterious fire but suffice it to say that as soon as the fire was put out, one of the boys in the compound noticed that the landlord who lived upstairs was burning on the ground floor. The fire incident did not affect apartments upstairs.”
On the allegation that her husband owed his landlord, she said that they were not indebted to him as they had paid up to date, just as she claimed that her light bill had also been paid up to 2015.
She added that a month’s quit notice was issued to them and they begged the landlord to give them enough time to look for another house.
On the day the landlord was allegedly set ablaze, she said that there was no quarrel between them, claiming that Pa. Iyen came threatening to kill her husband if he refuses to vacate the house.
She added that her husband went to Esigie Police Station to report a case of threat to his life by the landlord.
She therefore, appealed to the Commissioner of Police in Edo State to thoroughly investigate the matter, saying that her husband was not responsible for the fire.
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