Men and officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) last weekend arrested a robbery suspect terrorising a section of Ado Ekiti in recent time during a midnight operation. Speaking in Ado Ekiti yesterday, the Commandant of the Ekiti NSCDC Command, Mr. Donatus Ikemefuna, said the four-man robbery gang had invaded the Jokotayo area of Adebayo and embarked on house-to-house robbery operation of the residents.
He said the suspects invaded the area at about 11.30p.m. on a motorbike, which was parked at the entrance before the NSCDC operatives stormed the area after receiving a distressed call to foil the operation.
Ikemefuna, who disclosed that the robbers immediately fled the scene upon realising that his men had cordoned off the area, said double barrel guns, machetes, axe , torch light and other arms were recovered from the only culprit that was arrested at the robbery scene. The NSCDC boss said the suspect was immediately handed over to the police for further investigation and prosecution. He said his men’s action was borne out of the existing synergy among all the security agencies in the state in terms of cooperation and in performance of overlapping operations to rid Ekiti of criminals.
Ademola Babalola in Ibadan
A first port of call for patients otherwise known as Accident and Emergency ward of the Premier University College Hospital in Ibadan was yesterday gutted fire.
While it lasted, the inferno destroyed the central air conditioning systems and other equipment.
The blaze, which started around 4:15p.m. at Medical Store Casualty Unit of the Accident and Emergency Unit according to eyewitnesses, was said to have been caused by a gas explosion from the central air condition.
The University of Ibadan (UI) fire truck was the first on ground to quell the fire before the Oyo State Fire Service came to join them with two fire trucks and was able to stop the fire around after 5p.m.
There were no casualties reported, but the incident caused chaos in the hospital and patients were evacuated to nearby facilities.
While inspecting the damaged facilities, the Chief Medical Director of UCH, Prof Temitope Alonge, said the fire started around after 4p.m. during his hospital rounds.
He said: “I was at the second floor of the theatre complex building when I heard shout of people crying for help and I saw smoke coming out of the ward and I came around immediately to help.”
Alonge confirmed that there was no casualty and nobody was injured, be it a staff or patient.
“What I understood happened was that earlier in the day the head of electrical department noticed that the solar panel switch had a fault and it triggered a spark and they attended to it, but since it was not directly coming from the main supply from Ibadan Disco they decided to put on the power supply, so the spark ignted the insulator around the central air conditioning system and that was the beginning of the problem.
“Since our central air conditioner has stop working for a while, I believe it was the spark from the solar panel that ignited the insulator around the central air condition” he said
The CMD said he was very emotional with the type of response that the staff of the hospital gave to stop the fire, adding that they climbed the roof to stop the fire.
He listed the major damaged as the ceiling, the long span roofings, mattresses, some equipment, and the central air conditions, which he said was actually the main cause of the fire.
Alonge who was emotional while addressing journalists, said it would have been a greater damage if the sensitive rooms in the emergency department, resuscitation room, x-ray department, the operating theatre, were all affected.
“The central air conditioning system have his base in the basement of the emergency department, barely two weeks ago we just decided to remove the central air conditioning system because it was becoming a nuisance to the hospital, and if we have not remove it, it would have affected the whole hospital because the entire air condition insulator goes all the way round the hospital and it would have been a bigger disaster.
“Also, because it happened at a time that the staffs were just closing and were able to assist in stopping the fire.” he said
Alonge said the have make arrangements to attend to emergencies and resuscitate them at the general patients departments next door.
He noted that his staff are working tirelessly to bring the situation back to normalcy and attend to emergencies.
“As soon as we arrested the suspect, we handed him over to the police for investigation because armed robbery cases fall within the purview of the Nigeria Police.
“I want to appeal to the public to continue to partner us by providing useful information and summon courage anytime they have security challenge either to police station or NSCDC office to rescue them.”
