….Stakeholders blame dilapidated infrastructure for inferno
A near tragedy was averted, late evening on Wednesday, when one of the students’ hostels at the Kano Campus of the Nigerian Law School (NLS) was gutted by fire.
The incident, which occurred at about 7.00pm, barely an hour after the students at the campus ended their lectures, however consumed the property, books, clothes and all valuables of the inmates of the hostel.
According to eyewitnesses at the campus, the actual source of the incident could not be ascertained as of press time.
Sources, however, stated that both the students and staff of the campus have been trading blames on the cause of the fire.
While the management blamed the students for using contraband items like pressing irons and boiling rings, among other items, the students blame the management for their lack of maintenance of the buildings that had lasted several decades with visible signs of dilapidation and lack of maintenance.
The students’ hostels at the campus, when our correspondent visited, looked very unkept, dilapidated and very old.
Most of the bungalows used as hostels at the NLS campus are houses built when the premises served as Bagauda Lake Hotel constructed over 40 years ago during the late Governor Abubakar Rimi administration.
The entire campus is infested with rats, snakes, scorpions and other rodents and reptiles, which the management had told the students during orientation, are “friends of the community and harmless, but only strike when disturbed in their natural habitats”.
Worse, according to a source, is that students’ complaints about electrical faults and dilapidated facilities in most of the buildings at the campus were totally ignored, even after several complaints at the Porters’ Lodge.
Dry grasses at the campus were either not cut or were burnt by the staff members, heightening the confusion as to the source of Wednesday’s inferno.
While the management blamed students for using contraband electrical appliances, the students denied the claim, insisting that poor management of the buildings, unwholesome environmental infractions like burning of the lawns, not clearing the drainages of debris, not sweeping public places, including classrooms and lavatories, as well as outrightly ignoring the repairs of faults on the buildings, which were usually promptly reported by the students, must have led to the fire incident.
The Deputy Director-General of the Kano Campus of the institution, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed, was said to have travelled to Abuja, headquarters of the Law School early Thursday morning when our correspondent visited the campus for his reaction to the incident.
Also, the Director of Academics, Dr. Precious Ahiarammunnah, could not be reached as she was said to have gone to court. The Head of Students Affairs, Hajiya Fatima S. Taiga, was equally said not to be available, having gone to make a formal report of the fire incident to the Police. Her subordinate staff said she is not permitted to speak to the press, insisting that they will not speak on the matter.
Some other staff members spoken to by our reporter took the journalist round the campus, showing them eye-sore structures and the level of dilapidation and lack of maintenance of facilities at the campus.
