The police command in Taraba on Monday confirmed the electrocution of a family of four around the Dinyavo area of Jalingo, the state capital.

Abdullahi Usman, the command’s public relations officer, confirmed the incident in a statement in Jalingo.

He said the command was notified at about 11:00 a.m. that the house was on fire, suspected to be from a power surge. 

“Detectives from GRA Police Division were quickly deployed to the scene and, on arrival, found the four victims with burns suspected to be from electrocution.

“The victims are Remond Ofonbuk, 44, his wife, Mfonbong Remond, Hevean Remond, 15, and First Remond, 13 years old,” he said. 

M Usman said the command received information that the transformer serving the area blew up when power was restored. 

“We learnt that many houses within the neighbourhood experienced high electric voltage, which might have led to the fire outbreak that inflicted burns on the victims.

“Our detectives quickly evacuated the victims to Federal Medical Centre, Jalingo, for treatment, but they were confirmed dead on arrival,” he said.

Mr Usman said the corpses had been deposited at the hospital’s mortuary for autopsy while an investigation had commenced to ascertain the real cause of the incident.

(NAN)