Edeoga, Nweke, Ogbodo Sympathise As Fire Guts Enugu Radio Station

Solid 100.9fm, located in Enugu, has been gutted by fire. The station is owned by a brother of former minister of information, Prof Dora Akunyili.

Prof Akunyili, who died some years ago, is a former director general of the National Agency for Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC.

Our correspodent reports that the fire occurred around 9am on Saturday. It was gathered that the studio was burnt completely.

A source said the inferno started from a nearby building where residents were burning bushes. The station began transmission in 2012.

Meanwhile, Mr Frank Nweke Jr described the fire incident as a huge loss. Nweke, who is Enugu State’s governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in the 2023 elections, thanked God that no life was lost.

He said, “SolidFM is a very important voice for our people, for commerce, democracy, human rights and the projection of everything Enugu stands for.

“This studio is one of the best in the state. It is my prayer that you are able to bounce back quickly and you can be assured of our support in any way that we can help. We need your voice.

“We need to ensure that our emergency response services are well equipped and well trained to respond speedily to these situations. It is also important that we educate our citizens on the dangers of open incineration, especially in urban areas.”

The governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Barr Chijioke Edeoga, also commiserated with the station. He described it as ‘a huge loss to the people of the state’.

Barr Nana Ogbodo, spokesman of the campaign team of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, also sympathised with the management.

A source in the station said, “The fire entered our station from a building where students live. Our studio has a thatched roof, so the fire easily spread the entire buildings. We lost both personal and general property.

“We are happy that it started immediately the children that featured in our programme left the studio. The workers around were few, and were cut unaware. For now, we can only play music from the transmitter. We can’t read news or do live programmes.

“Men of the state fire service came, but late.”

It was gathered that police have arrested the suspects.