In a most tragic incident which took place on Thursday night, in Kaduna State, five children of the same parents were burnt to death during a domestic inferno. The deceased, whose names were given as Sadiya (16), Ramat (11), Monsir (7), Khalid (9), and a fifth child aged 14, have since been buried according to Islamic rites.
According to the Tribune, which reported the news, the incident occurred when their two-bedroom apartment, located in Faskari Street, Kakuri, was engulfed by fire suspected to have been caused by a candle. It was also gathered that efforts by neighbours to rescue the children, whose parents where away as of the time of the incident, were untimely and, therefore, proved abortive.
A neighbor of the deceased said: “We suspected candlelight, because the eldest of them, Sadiya, had gone to buy kerosene earlier, but she did not get any, but bought a candle instead. Thereafter, they lit the candle and slept off. The burning candle might have caused the fire,” a neighbour said.
It was also learnt that parents of the children were at a private hospital in Kaduna, where their mother was delivered of a child a day before the incident. Speaking amid sobs, the bereaved father, Mohammed Aminu Okene, said that he had earlier taken them to visit their mother in the hospital.
Source: Tribune
