The Kano State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Abdullahi Minkaila has been killed in a mysterious fire outbreak.
The deceased was burnt along with his wife, Zulaiha and two children, Aisha and Asmau, in an inferno when his residence was engulfed by fire early Friday morning.
The late Minkaila and his family were rushed to the Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital where they gave up the ghost Friday morning.
Spokesman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Mallam Garba confirmed the incident.
He said the bodies of the victims were already being conveyed to the late Commissioner’s native Dutse in Jigawa, for burial, in line with Islamic tradition.
Similarly, the Public Relations Officer of the Kano State Police Command, Magaji Majiya, confirmed the sad incident.
According to him, the fire might have been caused by a spark in the family’s generator set at about 4a.m.
He said the fire later spread to other parts of the house and that the INEC Commissioner and his family tried to escape through the window of one of the toilets in the building but were blocked by a burglary barrier.
Majiya said the State Police Commissioner, Ibrahim Idris, and the Deputy Police Commissioner in-charge of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), arrived the scene almost on time.
They were the ones that rushed the INEC commissioner and his family to Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital, where they were confirmed dead.
Neighbours, however, wonder how a generator spark led to the kind of fire that engulfed a whole building killing all occupants.
Minkaila presided over last Saturday’s presidential and national assembly elections in Kano.
