The fire reportedly started from solar panels mounted on the roof of one of the buildings before rapidly spreading to adjoining flats, causing extensive damage.
The former Governor, Senator Yerima, hadn’t set foot in the Asokoro property in months, preferring his Zamfara retreat. The four destroyed flats were rented out to high-profile tenants—a foreign diplomat, a controversial business mogul, a powerful lobbyist, and on the top floor, a mysterious, elderly historian known only as Malam Jabo.The fire, officially blamed on a rogue solar panel installation, began on the historian’s roof. But as the flames devoured the expensive imported marble and custom furniture, what the firemen truly struggled to contain was the unseen political heat.Malam Jabo, it turned out, was not just a historian; he was the keeper of a legendary, decades-old ledger known as The Z-File. It contained the unverified, explosive details of every major financial deal and secret power negotiation from the first days of Zamfara statehood. Yerima had leased the flat to him years ago as a secure, unquestionable vault.When the smoke cleared, three things were found perfectly preserved amidst the ashes of Malam Jabo’s flat: a singed copy of the Quran, a small, intricate Zamfara carving, and an empty, titanium-reinforced safe where The Z-File should have been. The solar panels were merely the diversion. The question was not who set the fire, but who walked away with the history that could unmake the present.
