By Andrew Ikehi
IGBANKE/Nigeria: Members of the Igbanke Grammar School Old Students Association have expressed deep concern over what they described as recurring and mysterious fire outbreaks that have continued to destroy buildings, equipment and learning materials at Igbanke Grammar School, Igbanke, Edo State.
In a statement made available to journalists, the President of the Association, Mr Jacob Erhabor, lamented the latest fire incident which he said completely razed the school’s examination hall, further setting back the institution’s infrastructural development.
Erhabor described the development as disturbing and unacceptable, noting that the incident, which occurred on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, had already been reported to the Edo State Ministry of Education, while calling on the ministry to take urgent and decisive steps to prevent future occurrences.
He appealed to the Edo State Government to install a perimeter fence around the school, describing it as a lasting solution to the frequent fire outbreaks. According to him, the school is surrounded by farmlands, over which the school authorities have little or no control, making it vulnerable to fire incidents triggered by farming activities.
“The fire started from the neighbouring community of Ekpon and spread into the school compound around 5:30pm on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, completely destroying the examination hall,” Erhabor said, adding that the combined efforts of teachers, students and residents prevented the fire from spreading to other buildings.
He recalled that between 2021 and 2023, the association spent just under N25 million on the renovation of dilapidated structures in the school, including two classroom blocks, the administrative block and a chemistry laboratory, stressing that repeated fire incidents threaten to undo years of intervention and sacrifice by old students.
