What was actually responsible for the mystery fire that razed the Court of Appeal, Calabar last Friday? Was the fire incident a man made, or it was caused by electrical fault?
Those are the questions many residents in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, especially lawyers and other judicial officers have been asking in the last few days.
The oldest court building in Nigeria and former residential quarters for the colonial masters in Calabar, was gutted by a mystery fire, damaging valuable properties in the main building, which until last week housed the offices of the judges and the court hall.
An eye witness told journalists in Calabar that the fire outbreak was caused by electrical fault from one of the judges’ chambers. He said that the fire incident started at about 1.00 am Friday, when a security officer noticed a thick smoke coming out from one of the windows – which attracted security personnel from the neighbouring government house and called for rescue intervention.
Built over 100 years ago, the current Court of Appeal in Calabar, was the first West African Court of Appeal and later the first Supreme Court of the Southern Protectorate.
It was the first court in Nigeria created by the white people – when they invaded the area during the pre – colonial era. And because of the presence of the first court in Calabar, many lawyers tend to believe that the law practice actually started in the “Canaan City”. Perhaps so; most of the early prominent lawyers and Judges started their practice in Calabar. Some lawyers had even claimed that the first legal practice started in Calabar before it moved to Lagos. For instance, Sir Alexandra, who later became a Chief Justice of Nigeria and others like him, passed through the court.
A lawyer and immediate past Cross River State Chairman of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Mba Ukweni,? while reacting to the fire incident said, “It is a monumental loss. It would have been a great value to history and legal profession, for that place to have been preserved for people to come and see it and know that this was the first court that was here.”
Several election cases, particularly those from Cross River and Akwa Ibom States were pending before the mystery fire. Other appeal cases were also listed for hearing in the court, and lawyers had received hearing notices for their appeals listed for last week. They included the election petition of the House of Representatives for Abi/Yakurr Federal Constituency in Cross River, the state’s Central Senatorial District petition that was billed for January 5, the Patrick Iwara Versus Victor Ndoma-Egba case, the incumbent Senate Leader; Mkpanam Obo Bassey Ekpo versus Hon. Ndom Kanu Ogbor and others.
Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State while commiserating with the judges and staff members of the court commended men of the fire service for responding quickly to the inferno. He said that their efforts prevented it from escalating to other buildings in the compound. He expressed shock over the incident and urged them to extend his sympathy to the president of the court. Most of the buildings were ancient fabricated structures.
By this development, there will be initial set back in the court sitting, in spite of the fact that the entire records were not destroyed. The justices were on vacation when the incident happened and they were expected to resume last week.
“If our light is stable and no fluctuation, we will have less of these problems; we should beef up our security; government should take issue of security and electricity seriously,” the ex-NBA chairman advised.
Security agents said that but for the quick intervention of the state fire service, the fire would have spread to Governor Imoke’s official resident.
Senator Ndoma-Egba (SAN) said, “The destruction was a tragic and great loss because what we have seen was not only a court but history of judiciary, in fact history of judiciary in West Africa.
“At a point the court was a monument, which housed the West African Court of Appeal. That building was constructed over 100 years ago and was the first Supreme Court of the Southern Protectorate and for a short while the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
“It is not just a court, it is a monument, I feel a personal sense of loss, because for 26 years of my life, I was in and out of this court; so it is like a large chunk of my life is ruined.”
For Chief Joe Agi (SAN), the incident was enormous damage and complete destruction. “It is a shame, this is a building some of us fought the former governor, Col Atta; the white men built this structure over 100 years; now the whole structure is down; the chamber is burnt; it is a blow on the judiciary”, he stated.
Chief Nta Nta, in his comment said, it was a terrible thing that had happened to the nation. “We use to go to Enugu State to attend Court of Appeal but lawyers and other people fought for it to be established here. When the court is burnt as other public buildings, Nigeria will degenerate to a level which we do not understand; because we use to know that offices and schools were burnt but now that it is Court of Appeal; there are more to it”, he claimed.
The deputy chief registrar of the court, who declined to give her name said, “The two security men who were on duty that day have been arrested by the police for interrogation.”