Section of Obasanjo’s 2nd Republic home guts fire in Abeokuta

Asection of Abeokuta, Ogun State capital residence that housed former President Olusegun Obasanjo when he handed over power to democratically-elected President Aliu Shehu Shagari in 1979, was on Wednesday night gutted by fire.

Businessday reports that ex-president Obasanjo built the affected building in 1978 in the build-up to his handover to the first democratically-elected President Shagari as a retired general and had since lived in another house in Sango-ota within his farm in Ado-odo/ota Local Government Area.

He had also lived at Obasanjo Presidential Hilltop Estate in Abeokuta, before 2019 general elections, where he hosted many Nigerian politicians in the build-up to the elections, but now lives at the Penthouse of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), a few kilometres away from the burnt Ita-eko house.

The fire incident, which caused a mild drama among the traditional residents of Onijaiye Street, Ita-eko, Gbagura-owu ancestral area of the former president in Abeokuta, reportedly caught fire at about 10pm on Wednesday night, as eyewitness account showed that the inferno occurred following a power surge.

Businessday observes that the combined efforts of the residents of the area and sympathisers who trooped out to assist the domestic workers in the house had already overpowered the inferno before the men of Ogun State-owned Fire Service arrived at the scene.