Mrs Theresa Jimoh, the mother of a business mogul, Jimoh Ibrahim, has been killed in a fire that broke out at her house in the Victoria Garden City, Lagos Island, Lagos State.
According to a report by SUNDAY PUNCH, the fire, which started in the early hours of Saturday, was caused by candlelight.
Ibrahim is the chairman and chief executive officer of Global Fleet Group, a diversified conglomerate based in Nigeria, with business interests in oil and gas, hospitality, insurance, media etc and subsidiaries in neighboring West African countries.
The report adds that the victim, who was reported to have slept off while praying at her residence on Road 3, House B8, was burnt to death before the intervention of firefighters from the Lagos State Fire Service.
Her remains were said to have been handed over to officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, who deposited them in a morgue.
The Director of the Lagos State Fire Service, Rasak Musbau, confirmed the incident, adding that residents on the estate had tried in vain to manage the inferno before the fire service was called.
Punch quotes the director as saying that the fire was suspected to have been caused by a lit candle.
Musbau said, “We got the call in the early hours of Saturday and the Lekki Fire Station responded to it. The VGC estate has a fire unit. So, before we were called, they had been trying to contain the fire on their own; but they were overwhelmed. Their vehicle also had a fault.
“When we got there, the fire was well alight. We recovered the woman with the joint efforts of LASEMA officials, who took away her corpse. What we gathered was that she always had prayer sessions, and maybe in the process, she lit a candle and slept off.”
The Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Chike Oti, said the fire started around 2am.
He said, “Someone had heard the woman calling for help, but when they got there, her room was engulfed in fire. The estate fire service and the state fire service worked together to put out the inferno. The corpse was later deposited in a Lagos State general hospital morgue. Investigation is ongoing into the actual cause of the fire.”
