Two siblings burnt to death in midnight fire

• Cult clash claims four lives in Edo
The Kano State Fire Service yesterday confirmed the death of two boys of the same parent in a fire incident. The children reportedly died yesterday during an early morning inferno that gutted their parent’s two-bedroom apartment at Sharada, Ja’en Yamma quarters in Kano metropolis.

Spokesman of the State Fire Service, Alhaji Saidu Mohammed, who declined to reveal the names of the victims, however told journalists that the victims were aged four and seven. Mohammed said the parents of the children had run out of the house in search of help in the neighborhood when the fire started at 2:09a.m. A later effort to rescue the children from the fire was not successful.

The fire service spokesman explained that the fire, which later took the intervention of the service to put off, could not save the siblings. Mohammad said the firemen had handed over the bodies of the children to the police after putting out the fire, adding that investigation had commenced to determine the cause of the incident.

Meanwhile, four persons have been killed on Monday night in Benin City, Edo State in separate clashes among suspected rival cult groups. The Guardian gathered that the first victim was shot at Ogida area at a drinking bar, while the three other victims were killed at different locations in the state capital.

A source who pleaded anonymity said one of the victims met his death in his bedroom, when unidentified gunmen shot him on the head through the window and another was hacked to death with a battle axe. The source added that the victims were shot dead between 9:00p.m. and 10:00p.m. in Ogida and Ugbor areas in the GRA.

He said: “I learnt that the young man was with one of his friend when some people attacked him. His friend was said to have run into his house, thinking that the victim also escaped, unknown to him that his friend was shot dead by the gunmen.”

The Edo State police command Public Relations Officer, DSP Chidi Nwabuzor, was not forthcoming with information on the killings, adding that he was not aware of the Ogida incident. He said: “I don’t know about the Ogida incident, what I know is what I will tell you.”