No fewer than five persons have lost their lives and houses destroyed by high tension wires that fell on houses in Kuta, Shiroro local government area of Niger State.
As a result of the incident the governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello on Tuesday paid visit to the families of the victims to commiserate with them and called for investigation into the accident.
It was gathered that apart from the five persons who were killed, several other persons were injured as a result of the brief but wild storm that made the wires to fall on the houses thereby electrocuting them.
It was also learnt that instead of using 100mm high tension wires, the wires was allegedly separated and reduced to about 30-40mm by the contractor handling an electrification project in the area, thereby making the wires susceptible to destruction by windstorm.
The governor who visited with top government officials expressed sadness over the incident and blamed the disaster on negligence by the contractor handling the Kuta electrification project.
Governor Bello said that government would give the needed support in order to bring succour to the families of those who lost their lives to the accident but ordered for investigation into the accident and report to the Minister of Works, Power and Housing on the alleged negligence of the contractor. He promised that the state government will foot 100 per cent of the medical bills of the injured victims.
According to him, “After receiving report on the unfortunate incident that claimed five lives, and left several others with various degrees of injuries and houses burnt, I felt it is important to come and sympathise with the people of Kuta; show our love and to see the kind of assistance to give to our people”.