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A grandmother, named lforiti, has allegedly set her son, his wife, and her two grandchildren ablaze in Apomu community of Akure, the Ondo State capital.
The suspect allegedly committed the crime while the family was fast asleep. She was said to have poured petrol into their room, after which she used a matchstick to ignite it, killing three of them, including her son, Victor; his wife, Racheal, and one of her grandchildren.
The other child was said to be in critical condition at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owo.
Narrating the sad incident to newsmen in Akure, an eyewitness, Korede Michael, said: “We saw the house on fire around 2am at the weekend and had to break the window to rescue everyone in the house.
“The woman, her son, Victor Oloro; wife, Rachael; and children, Toluwani and Blessing, were all in the house when the woman set it on fire. She got some dry palm fronds and the little petrol her son kept in a gallon for generator, spread it around the house and then put fire to it.
“I was the first person to notice the fire and jumped into the house before other members of the community joined me in rescuing them.
“We got a vehicle immediately to transport them to the government hospital in Akure.
“When we got to Akure (UNIMED annex), the doctors and nurses rejected the patients, saying they could not take care of them due to the degree of the burn, and advised that we take them to the Federal Medical Center in Owo.
“Unfortunately, we lost the last grandchild, who was just two and a half years old, immediately we got to Owo.
“The son and his wife, also, gave up the ghost while the only grandchild left is in a critical condition.”
According to Micheal, the suspect was not in any way affected by the fire.
”The children could not send the woman out of the house when she started behaving strangely because it was built by her late husband,” he said.
It was gathered that the suspect, at the police station, confessed to setting her son and his family on fire because they were starving her of food.
The Ondo State Police Command spokesperson, Funmi Odunlami, confirmed the incident, adding that the case is now with the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) for proper investigation.