Patients and residents around the Ifako-Ijaiye General Hospital panicked and ran for their lives over a fire outbreak that gutted a nursing room of the hospital, located on Iju Road in the Ifako-Ijaiye area of Lagos State.
Naija News learnt that the inferno, which started from the nursing room on the second floor of the three-storey health facility in the afternoon, led to patients and visitors scampering for safety.
Confirming the incident, Director, Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, Margaret Adeseye, in a post via X, said the fire was swiftly contained from spreading to other parts of the facility.
She stated that normal operations have resumed, and medical services to the public continued uninterrupted.
According to her, “The fire, which was reported at approximately 15:20 hours, was quickly brought under control, preventing significant damage to the busy healthcare facility. The incident was contained to the room where it originated.”
At the time of filing this report, no casualties were recorded, as an investigation into the cause of the fire has also commenced.
In other news, panic has gripped some parts of Lagos and Ogun States following viral WhatsApp voice notes alleging a batch of rice currently in circulation is deadly and spiritually cursed.
According to the circulating audio messages, a female foreign rice trader reportedly invoked the spirit of the Ogun deity on two trucks of her rice that were allegedly stolen and smuggled into Nigeria through the Seme and Idiroko borders.
The trader, according to the unverified reports, contacted Ogun worshippers in Ghana to curse anyone who buys or consumes the stolen rice.
The voice notes also claimed that some Nigerian Customs officers, a military personnel, and several others died after allegedly consuming the said rice.
In response to the growing fears, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has officially debunked the rumour, assuring the public that there is no truth to the claims.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Seme Area Command Public Relations Officer, Isah Sulaiman, described the viral reports as “entirely false, misleading, and does not reflect the reality of the matter.”