Five children burnt to death in Abuja, AEDC denies complicity

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company has distanced itself from the unfortunate inferno in which five children died in Mpape area of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on April 1.
The AEDC, in a statement by Ahmed Shekarau, its Head of Public Relations and Media, on Thursday in Abuja, expressed sympathy with the family of the deceased.
The AEDC, however, said the management deemed it necessary to set the records straight to correct the erroneous impression being created.
The company said the report of AEDC preliminary investigation carried out by a fact-finding team revealed that the accident was caused by an explosion from a fuel container taken into the room where the inferno occurred.
According to records from the AEDC control room, the area had no electricity supply at the time of the inferno, due to load shedding.
It said the team’s report also revealed that the mother of the five deceased had sent one of her children to buy petrol for use in a generator.
According to AEDC, upon return, the child took the fuel into the room where the five deceased children were sleeping.
It said: “Because of the saturation of petrol fumes in that room, when the woman lit up a match stick to light up a mosquito coil to wade off mosquitoes, the flame ignited an explosion which engulfed the room.”
It stated that some of the neighbours of the affected family had also attested to the report in separate interviews they granted to the team.
It said one of the neighbours of the family had also explained to the team that electricity supply was not restored to the neighbourhood throughout the night of the incident.
This, it said, had confirmed that the unfortunate inferno that led to the death of the five children was not caused by electricity.