Owerri, 21 March, 2022 / 9:15 pm (ACI Africa).
The leadership of Nigeria’s Owerri Archdiocese is assessing the damages caused when a fire reportedly engulfed Maria Assumpta Cathedral on the night of Sunday, March 20.
In a statement shared with ACI Africa Monday, March 21, the Apostolic Administrator of Owerri Archdiocese, Archbishop Anthony John Valentine Obinna, provides details about the incident.
“At about 10.40pm yesterday, Sunday 20th March 2022, with the Cathedral gates and doors already locked, fire erupted from an uncertain source within the Sacristy section of the Cathedral,” Archbishop Obinna recounts.
The Sacristy of Maria Assumpta Cathedral of Nigeria’s Owerri Archdiocese destroyed by fire on 20 March 2022. Credit: Courtesy Photo
He continues, “The first respondents were mainly street-traders, Control Post passengers and some Cathedral residents, who alerted others about the fire and struggled to quench it.”