Sabotage has been ruled out by the police in Kano State in the death of the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Alhaji Abdullahi Minkaila, and his family.
Minkaila, his wife and two daughters died in their Nasarawa GRA residence, Kano when fire suddenly erupted around 4:30am.
But the police on Friday said there was no suspicion of sabotage.
Rather, the police said Minkaila and his family died of suffocation.
The state Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Idris, said: “Preliminary investigations confirmed that Munkaila and members of his family died out of suffocation arising from a fire, suspected to have emanated from electrical fault.
“We want to rule out sabotage as being speculated in some quarters.
“That is why we have brought journalists here to verify the facts.
“Today about 4:30am, policemen on guard duty at the official residence of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Kano State, Alhaji Munkaila Abdullahi, located at No. 2, Sir Kashim Ibrahim Road, Nasarawa GRA, Kano, observed a fire emanating from split A/C in the sitting room.
“They made several attempts to get in touch with him, including banging the doors and breaking some of the toilet windows but he was not responding.
“The policemen and local guards broke the door leading to the sitting room and discovered the sitting room was engulfed by fire and smoke.
“They then went to the side of the door leading to the master bedroom, broke the door and entered.
“They were not inside the bedroom and the policemen then went to the bathroom, inside the master bedroom and found the REC, his wife and his two daughters unconscious on the floor.
“They quickly moved them to Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital where doctors confirmed them dead from inhalation of hot and black smoke.
“Detectives have sealed the scene and together with fire service men have commenced a thorough investigation into the incident.”
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