An aide to the Chairman, Mutual Benefits Assurance, Stephen Owolabi, who confirmed the incident during a chat with our correspondent on Monday, said the fire started right in his bedroom and destroyed everything in there.

Owolabi also said the incident happened on Sunday after Ogunbiyi had left for Osogbo to attend a church service.

He said some people that were on the premises, had observed smoke and called Ogunbiyi, who at the time, was about to enter Osogbo.

“The fire started from his bedroom and then took everything in the bedroom. Nothing was left and it also affected some other places. It has done the damage before fire fighters would come. We didn’t suspect anyone.

“It happened Sunday morning. People were not at home. Ogunbiyi was coming to a Redeemed Church in Osogbo because he had an appointment there. He was about to reach Osogbo when he was called that they saw smoke in the house. “He returned home and called firefighters but the whole bedroom was burnt before anything could be done. We didn’t suspect anybody, but till now, we don’t know the cause of the fire,” Owolabi concluded.

National Secretary of the party, Dr Samson Isibor, gave this warning in Benin, Edo State, on Sunday while reacting to a recent court judgment that affirmed Rev Isaac Adeniyi as the authentic National Chairman of the party.

He said the new leadership would soon convene a meeting of all the state chapters of the party to chart a way forward and organise how to have properly constituted leadership and flag bearer ahead of the 2023 elections.

Isibor said, “The Executive Committee will have nothing to do with any Presidential primary which will not be observed by INEC, anyone who presented himself as Accord presidential candidate is on his own. We are grateful to God for giving us the victory at the court. We are the executive that has been saddled with the responsibility of running the party. We have got the justice we prayed for so I appeal to all our members in all the states to be calm and that as soon as a possible we shall call a meeting of all the state chapters including all those that have been there legally and illegally and rejuvenate the party for reckoning.

We don’t want to be a second-hand party. We were formally in the forefront but because of the way those hijackers operated, we were relegated but now the real exco has bounced back and we have instructed that no bank should deal with them again. INEC has also been informed. I want to congratulate our national chairman Rev Isaac Adeniyi who stood firm during adversity; we are victorious, and kudos to the judiciary because it shows that the court remains the last hope of all the citizens of the country.”