BENIN CITY – Tragedy that would have claimed lives was averted on Saturday as the transmission studio of the Independent Television and Radio in Iguosa, near Benin, Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State was razed by fire.
Though the estimated number of property destroyed by the fire could not be quantified as at the time The NIGERIAN OBSERVER visited the station yesterday, it was learnt that the incident which occurred around 9p.m. on Saturday razed the studio with all the equipment while the station was transmitting the Network news.
Speaking with our news crew, the Acting General Manager ITV/Radio, Mr. Ogbeide Uwumwonse described the incident as sabotage and arson.
According to him, “I got the information, while I was in London and I quickly boarded the next available flight to be able to meet up yesterday (Sunday).
Continuing, he said that “on personal assessment, nothing was removed. The fully equipped state-of-the-art digital studio was all gone”.
According to him, from the information gathered, it was purely sabotage.
He said the fire started from the roof, and the staff on duty said they heard explosion from the roof, only to run out and saw fire on top of the building.
“They tried to salvage the situation but could not as the roof suddenly pulled down at once,” said the ITV/Radio G.M.
From our general assessment, we saw where the person removed the barb wire which indicated where the person passed through to throw whatever it is on top of the roof”.