The Sun News On-line

Agony, hopelessness and despair have overwhelmed the once happy and vibrant family of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Nwafor, who lost their three children, a set of twins, Chinedu and Chinonso, and daughter, Ada, to a fire that burnt the building they live in at Alhaji Bello Ibira Street, Oke-Odo area of Lagos.
In a bid to protect her children, Blessing Nwafor allegedly locked them up in their flat and went to a nearby market to purchase some foodstuffs.

Fate, however, played a cruel game on her, as the building was gutted by fire, claiming the lives of the children she wanted to protect from danger.
According to the landlord’s wife, Mrs. Ologboro, the woman admitted to have placed a pot containing oil on the fire before going to buy food-stuff. She was also quoted as saying that she forgot the oil on fire and left, with her children locked up in the flat.

But this allegation was, however, debunked by the grieving kids’ father.
He said: “Look, my wife is not a careless woman. It is all lies.”
He argued that his wife wouldn’t have placed oil on the fire and locked up her children in the flat.
“Is it to kill them?” he asked rhetorically.
According to him, the day of the tragedy was not the first time of locking up their children in the house for safety.

Nwafor said he played football with his twin sons in the morning of that tragic day, as the wife was busy washing some clothes.
“I didn’t know that the football we played that morning would be our last interaction,” the broken-hearted father lamented as he spoke to Daily Sun.
Narrating how the inferno started, Mrs. Ologboro said that she and her aged mother just came from the market and were sitting in front of their flat when someone ran to inform them that the building was in flames.

She narrated how she solicited help from other neighbours and traders in Ilepo market, lamenting that there was not enough water to put off the raging fire.
Mrs. Ologboro explained that as efforts to put off the fire intensified, she rushed to the Fire Service opposite the burnt building for help, only to be told that there was no water. Before fire fighters from Alausa, Ikeja could arrive the scene, the three children had been burnt to death.
The Lagos police command spokesman, Mr. Frank Mba, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), who confirmed the incident, said the cause of the fire was not yet known. He revealed that investigations were still on.