Fire razes Igbinedon’s TV transmission station in Benin

There was confusion among the management and staff of the Independent Television following an inferno which razed the transmission section of the station in the Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State. ITV is a private broadcast station owned by the Esama of Benin and renowned businessman, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion. It was gathered that the fire, which started at about 9pm on Saturday, completely razed the Masters Control Room and interrupted the live transmission of the network news of the Nigerian Television Authority. It was further learnt that it took the combined effort of firefighters from the Edo State Fire Service, the University of Benin Fire Service and the Military Fire Service to extinguish the fire and prevent it from spreading to other parts of the building. When our correspondent got to the scene of the incident, the charred remains of broadcast equipment valued at millions of naira littered the area. The roof of the affected building was also destroyed, while smoke billowed from some of the charred walls, which were originally treated with acoustics. Men of the Department of State Security were also at the scene of the incident, while some staff of the station were seen discussing the incident. Although the actual cause of the fire had yet to be identified at the time of filing the report, the station’s Head of News, Mr. Abiodun Mudashiru, however, said the fire resulted from a “light explosion.” He said, “It was some minutes after 9pm last night (Saturday), when the network news was going on, that (technical) operatives observed that there was an explosion in the main studio. “They usually sit behind the walls. When they heard the light explosion, they decided to investigate what was happening. “In the process of doing that, the roof just came down at once with a wild fire. That was it and before we knew it, the whole place was engulfed in flames,” he said. Efforts to reach the Edo State Police Command were unsuccessful, as calls made to the telephone line of the Edo State command’s Police Public Relations Officer, Joseph Edoighiawerei, rang out.