It was a sad weekend for the entire Kaduna Archdiocese Catholic community at the weekend just a week after the New Year with the celebration of feast of Epiphany when properties worth over N500 million was destroyed in a fire outbreak which occurred at Saint Peters Minor Seminary, Katari in Kagarko LGA of Kaduna State.
The rector of the school, Rev. Fr. Sati Edward disclosed this at the school premises while on-the-spot assessment tour of the facilities with newsmen. However, he said the school has not been in session for over two years due to insecurity.
“Around 12 midnight, I got a call that the hostels of the seminary were on fire. I immediately put a call to the Archbishop to let him know of the incident. At that time, I was in Kaduna town.
“Immediately I put off the call, I rushed to the seminary, at that time the youth of the area were already there trying to put off the fire, but it was so serious that there was nothing they could do. The Archbishop later came’, he said.
“For over two years, the students have not been there in the school because of insecurity. If they were there, perhaps it wouldn’t have happened or it would’ve been put off by the students”, he lamented.
He also said people that were living around the school environment have packed and moved to main town because they were told that the place was no longer safe. Adding that if they were around, the incident would’ve been prevented too.
According to him, a number of the blocks of the school buildings were seriously ravaged by the fire which sources were still unknown to them. “We lost four blocks, 2 hostels, the laboratory blocks and host of others earlier estimated at N100 million but later discovered to be worth N500 million.
The Kaduna Archdiocese Education Secretary, Mr. John .Ewoye who was also in company of Fr. Edward described the incident as shocking.
“The entire diocese is still in shock. It is like from from frying pan to fire”, he said. He explained that the diocese decided to relocate the students to other seminaries in order not to risk their lives because of insecurity only to hear about the fire incident.
