48 How thieves caused death of 5 in Kaduna

Five youth lost their lives when thieves numbering seven on May 15th, 2017 burgled and set a flat located on Matazu Close in Tudan Wada area of Kaduna State on fire for fear of being caught. The youth were said to have rushed to the house when it was engulfed in fire started by the thieves.

Our correspondent, who visited the house and also the families of the victims, gathered that the owner of one of the flats burgled by the thieves caught one of them and raised alarm. Before help could come from neighbours, one of the thieves poured petrol on the curtains and mattress and set the house ablaze.

The thieves escaped in the commotion that ensued as neighbours tried to save lives and salvage belongings. No occupant of the house died, but sadly, five boys from different families in the neighbourhood who came in to help quench the fire lost their lives in the process.

An eye witness and uncle to one of the victims Ahmad, Muhammad Bello, said “There are three flats in the house; two are together and one is separate. After the thieves set the flats on fire, the boys went to the detached flat to get water stored in some containers to quench the fire.

“While they were pouring water out of the containers, they did not know that petrol was stored in one of them, so immediately they poured it into the fire, they were all engulfed. We just heard people screaming; we did not know they had even gone to that part of the house until they came out on fire.”

The deceased victims of the fire incident - Ahmad Hassan (18), Saidu Adamu (25), Mustapha Suleiman (25), Abubakar Umar (27) and Abdulrahman Abdullahi (22) have all been buried according to Islamic rites.

Speaking to our correspondent, Saidu’s father, Adamu Muhammad, described