Zamfara Government has described the fire that gutted the N183 million Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) intervention project at the State College of Education, Maru, as unfortunate.

The acting State Governor, Malam Ibrahim Wakkala who visited the College on Tuesday to assess the damage, noted that the inferno caused a great loss to the institution and government.

Wakkala said government had directed the state’s Ministry of Education to set up a committee to ascertain the level of damage and cause of the fire and present its findings.

“Government will support the College to continue with its activities. I also urge communities in the state to always be conscious of fire, especially in the current harmattan season to avoid future incident.

Earlier, Provost of the College, Alhaji Nasiru Sarkin-Fawa, told the deputy governor that seven departments, multimedia languages laboratory, School of Languages Dean’s office and Languages Office were lost to the disaster.

Sarkin-Fawa said that the college had lost its 16 years valuable records to the disaster, and needed urgent support from the state government and TETFund so that their academic activities would not stop.

“About 2,083 students, 42 academic and 18 non-academic staff will no longer have classes and offices as a result of the disaster,” he said.

He appealed to the government to assist the college with additional structures like staff accommodation.

“We have about 400 staff, including academic and non-academic.

“Only 20 per cent out of the total number of staff are residing in the College while the remaining staff are living outside due to lack of accommodation.

“We have about 8,000 students in this College, but we are facing serious challenge of lack of infrastructure, including water,” he added.

The fire occurred on Dec. 23 and razed the 2013 intervention complex project of the College.

It comprises four departments, one dean’s office and other offices. (NAN)

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