How A’Ibom Fire Service Goofed, Watched Helplessly As Fire Roasts Wife of EX-PDP Chairman • 7 Days Mourning Enters Day 2 in Ukanafun • What Gov Said At Scene Of Incident

Fresh revelations are emerging on how the Akwa Ibom State Fire Service failed to stop the raging inferno at the residence of the late chairman of the PDP in Akwa Ibom State, Obong Udo Ekpenyong, where his wife, Elizabeth and her sister, Ms Ofonime Frank were roasted to death.

TNN learnt that apart from the state fire service operatives arriving late at the Shelter Afrique residence of the late party chairman, they had not enough water in their trucks, neither did they have soap, to contain the fire.

It was learnt that the water they had in their truck got exhausted when the fire was still raging and the workers had to go for more water, a development that was said to have angered the state governor, Pastor Umo Eno, who was present at the scene.

The governor was said to have lamented that with what he saw, it meant that the state had no fire service that could combat incidents of that nature. The governor was said to have been in tears as he watched the home of his friend going down in flames, while the state fire service remained helpless.

But sources said it was the federal government’s fire service that made efforts to stop the fire, though their effort could not prevent the worse from happening. They were said to have concentrated on the bedroom of the deceased wife of the former chairman, not knowing that the woman and her sister had ran into the toilet to hide from the raging furnace.

Their lifeless bodies were recovered from the toilet after the Christmas even fire had done its worst. The source of the outbreak remains unknown. But what is known, for now, is that the state government does not have a reliable fire service. The governor himself witnessed it live.

Meanwhile, the transition chairman of Ukanafun Local Government where Ekpenyong hails from, has declared seven days of mourning for all indigenes of the local government. The chairman said in a statement on Monday, through the council secretary, Udeme Idiong, that Ukanafun would no longer take part in the on-going local governments’ exhibition at the Christmas village in Uyo.