TWO strange fires struck in two far-flung areas of Lagos last week; one at the headquarters of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s Christ Embassy church at Oregun and the other at the fledgling refinery of Africa’s touted richest man, Aliko Dangote. Who dunnit? If the fire at Christ Embassy can be described as an act of God or the carelessness of one person or the other, that at Dangote’s refinery was really suspicious, coming, as it were, a few days after a top official of the refinery had cried out that they were being frustrated by oil cabals bent on perpetuating the country’s profligacy of importation of refined petroleum products with the concomitant payment of fuel subsidy that has run the country’s balance sheet jaded. Let us discuss the Christ Embassy fire first.
A news medium reported it thus: “Worshipers and members of Love World International, commonly known as Christ Embassy, are recounting their ordeals, following yesterday’s mysterious fire that razed both the administrative block and the main auditorium of the church headquarters, in Oregun, Lagos State. The cause of the fire, which completely razed the ground floor of the church, leaving it in ruins, remained unknown at the time of this report. However, unconfirmed reports blamed the incident on a power surge from the electrical appliances.
Church workers and other members of the church who were preparing for the Sunday service were said to have scampered for safety. The fire started around 7 a.m.
and was .