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From John Adams, Minna
Timely intervention by neighbours and other good Samaritans prevented a hotel owner, Sunday Agbo, from committing suicide after his multi-million-naira hotel was razed by fire in Suleja, Suleja Local Government Area of Niger State.
The fire incident was said to have occurred on Sunday afternoon after one of the generating sets in the hotel caught fire and immediately extended to the entire building in the twinkling of an eye.
The hotel, Abagbo Garden and Hotel, popularly referred to as “car wash hotel,” situated atthe Kwankwashi area of Suleja, is one of the most popular hotels in Suleja.
Eyewitness accounts told our correspondent that despite spirited efforts by neighbours and lodgers in the hotel, including staff of A.A. Rano filling station who came with the station’s fire extinguisher to put out the fire, the inferno raged on with almost nothing to salvage.
It was gathered that though men of the state fire service from Suleja division later mobilised to the scene with their truck, a substantial part of the hotel had been razed down in what people described as a “mysterious fire” due to the speed and the magnitude of the destruction.
Apart from the rooms, the entire store with over 200 cartons of beer of different brands was razed down.
It was further gathered that the management of the hotel took delivery of the beers on Saturday before the fire incident on Sunday, and no single bottle had been sold from the over 200 cartons of beer in the store.
The director of the hotel, Mr Sunday Agbo, an indigene of Benue State, who watched helplessly as the inferno reduced his lifetime investment to rubble, took to his heels but was immediately chased and held down by people around who suspected that he was heading for a suicide mission.
He was later taken away from the scene of the inferno to his residence, where family and friends besieged to sympathise with him and console him over the heavy loss.
The visibly shaking director, who managed to speak after regaining composure, revealed that he had lost everything he had laboured for over 20 years, stressing that “what else do you want me to be doing in this life?”
Mr Agbo was said to have obtained a loan of over ₦10 million for the renovation of the hotel rooms and was yet to pay for the over 200 cartons of beer he took delivery of before the incident.
“I don’t know how I will come out of this; I am finished. I don’t know where to start from because I have invested everything into this hotel,” he was quoted to have cried out.
