H-E-L-P! I’m finished,cries labourer who lost set of twins, property in mystery fire

IT was indeed a pathetic sight as Vanguard Metro’s team was conducted round the debris of a make-shift structure that once housed a couple and their four children. The couple are presently mourning their twins, aged two and half years, who perished in a mysterious inferno.
It was all sighs, hisses and weeping when the VM demanded to see the photograph of the twin babies taken when they were alive. As soon as the picture was fished out from among the few luggage that they were able to salvage, the man broke down, unable to hold back his tears.

Mr. and Mrs James with their surviving child. INSET:The dead twins

The wife, clutching a suckling child who survived through the act of Providence, soon joined the husband and their wailing could be heard within the vicinity of their burnt makeshift residence located on Marym Babangida Way Asaba. Sympathizers who came around also struggled to fight back tears. Their four-year-old boy was lucky to have survived the fire incident. He was taken out of the room before the fire started.
The father of the dead twins, Mr. Samuel James, is a middle-aged labourer who hails from Akwa-Ibom State and came to Asaba, Delta State to eke a living.
He struggled for words as he narrated the trend of the tragedy that befell his family.
Hear him: “That was Saturday night, we were inside the house and my wife started complaining about the heat. Because of this we decided to go outside and lie down on the mat. But when we went outside we left our twins and this my boy inside the room. The generator was not on so we lit the lantern. Before the incident, this boy fell from the bed and began to cry. So I went inside and brought him out. But around 2am, my wife and I were woken up by a cry. That was when we saw the fire.
We didn’t just know how it came about. It killed my two kids (sobs) and burnt all my property. Everything was burnt: My television, my CD, my fan, my phone, my N59,000. I am finished. That is why I am calling for help from the government and the public. I am just a labourer. Everything we have has gone. Even this cloth I am putting on now was given to me by somebody. I have four children, but the twins died in the fire. Oh, how can I see my twins again to play with me oo”!
After narrating his tragic story and showing VM the ruins of his once-cherished home, the man continued to lament the tragedy of having to bury his children against the African belief that children should bury their parents and not the other way round.
Ironically, one of the killed set of twins was named Mariam and she died on Mariam Babangida Way Asaba, a road named after the late wife of former Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.
Meantime, the man and his wife are passionately appealing for public assistance to enable them get on with life.
However, in the words of George Gordon; “What deep wounds ever closed without a scar?

Source : Vanguard