Chairman Kaduna Peace Commission, Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon’s four-bedroom duplex in Kaduna, which houses a Christianity and Islamic Study Centre has been gutted by fire with property worth millions of naira lost to the inferno.
Archbishop Idowu Fearon is currently the Secretary General of Anglican Communion Worldwide with headquarters in London, United Kingdom.
The top floor of the four bedroom en-suite duplex, which consist of three bedrooms including the Bishop’s room, that of his wife, his library, gym and one other room was completely razed down by the inferno leaving no single item to be salvaged from it.
According to an eye witness, the inferno was caused by a worker in one of the neighbouring houses to Bishop Fearon’s house, who engaged in bush burning despite warnings from people around.
The source said the neighbour was warned not to carry out bush burning but he turned deaf ears until the inferno happened.
Archbishop Fearon expressed shock and disappointment over the fire incident lamenting that loss from the library alone is unquantifiable as many of the over 6,500 volumes of book in the library are out of print and can hardly be found again in the market.
Reacting to the fire incident, he simply said, “your love and concern are appreciated, may the Lord bless you. You know these uneducated people around us, what does one do other than just warn and leave them to God.
“My library had between 6,500 to 7,000 volumes with almost half on Islamic books and a good number out of print.
“God saved the ground floor as an evidence that God 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.”
An eye witness, Hadiza Haruna, who is the Bishop’s house help said all efforts by the Fire Service men who came with about five trucks to put off the fire could not yield much result as much damage had already been done before they arrived the scene.