An early morning fire yesterday gutted the central store of the
Edo State Ministry of Education complex, Iyaro, Benin.The store houses all
relevant examinations documentation, including question papers and answers
sheets for all public schools from old Mid-Western Region till date. Read more
The fire, which reportedly started from one of the offices in
the central store, was blamed on the faulty fan in one of the offices, which
went up in flames due to the erratic public power supply.
An official of the ministry allegedly failed to turn off all
electrical appliances after working late to ensure that sensitive examination
materials for the junior secondary school examination scheduled to commence
yesterday were in place.
Also affected by the inferno were the detailed results sheets of
all first primary school certificates, all junior secondary school certificates
conducted by the ministry under the old Mid-Western Region.
Eyewitnesses blamed the destruction on the inability of the
state fire service to respond to the distress call.
The fire service had repeatedly lamented its inability to
respond to distress calls because of obsolete fire fighting vehicles, aged
personnel and paucity of funds.
A shocked Commissioner for Basic Education, Patrick Agwinede who
visited the ministry as early as 6a.m yesterday expressed shock at the level of
destruction by the inferno.
“Am still experiencing a rude shock that such a building can be
destroyed by fire, this building houses the examination answer sheets, result
sheets, report cards, of all the exams that have ever been conducted.
“I wonder what could have happened. If it was sabotage, why
should the store be the prime target?” the commissioner queried.
Following the
incident, the junior school certificate examination had been postponed since
the question papers and answer sheets were destroyed
Culled From Sun newspaper
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