Fire razes archbishop’s residence in Kaduna

Fire has razed the Kaduna country home of the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Worldwide, Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon.

Idowu-Fearon is also the Chairman of the Kaduna Peace Commission.

Our correspondent gathered on Tuesday that the four bedroom duplex, which also housed the Centre for Christianity and Islamic Study, was razed and property valued at millions of naira destroyed in the fire.

A witness said the inferno was caused by a worker of one of the neighbours of the cleric who engaged in bush burning.

“The man was warned not to carry out the bush burning, but all warnings fell on deaf ears until the unexpected happened,” the witness said. Another witness, Hadiza Haruna, who is the bishop’s house help, said efforts by the fire service men, who came with about five water trucks to put out the fire, yielded no results.

Sympathisers were seen viewing what was left of the duplex.

The archbishop, who resides in London, said he lost a lot of valuables.

He said, “You know these uneducated people around us, what does one do other than just warn and leave them to God.

“My library had between 6500-7000 volumes with almost half on Islamic books and a good number of them are out of print.

“God saved the ground floor as evidence that He approves of our centre bringing Muslim and Christian leaders to study and share their faith with one another. We give all the glory to God.”