At least 16 people died, at the weekend, in a fire incident that swept through a residential building in an Al-Ras neighbourhood of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
The fire, which broke out on the apartment’s fourth floor, also injured nine other residents.
The Dubai Civil Defence Force said preliminary investigations showed that the fire was caused by “a lack of compliance with building safety and security requirements.”
A statement by the civil defence said,
“Relevant authorities are conducting a comprehensive investigation to provide a detailed report on the causes of the accident.”
On Sunday, char marks could be seen on the apartment building, home to a grocery store, a smoke shop, and other businesses on its ground floor.
Illegal apartment partitioning has been a problem in Dubai for decades, worsened when the city-state sees real estate booms and economic growth like it is experiencing now.
Fires have broken out in skyscrapers in Dubai and other fast-growing cities in the UAE in recent years. In 2017, a large fire broke out at a high-rise under construction near the city’s largest shopping mall.
A fire engulfed a five-star hotel in Dubai on New Year’s Eve two years earlier, with several people injured.
Dubai is one of the seven emirates of the UAE and has a population of about 3.3 million, of whom nearly 90 per cent are foreigners.
Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, has reportedly returned to Nigeria from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, after six months stay in the Middle- East nation.
Presidential sources told journalists that Mrs. Buhari returned to the country on Thursday morning.
The President’s wife quietly relocated abroad after one of her daughters’ wedding in September last year.
Questions have been raised by concerned Nigerians over her whereabouts but the presidency refused to make any comment on the matter.
However, Mrs. Buhari’s media aide, Aliyu Abdullahi, has refused to confirm the report of her return to the country.
Aliyu simply told journalists that he was not aware that the President’s wife has returned to the country from Dubai.
Foreign residents make up more than 80% of the UAE’s population and have for decades been a mainstay of its economy.
The United Arab Emirates plans to offer citizenship to selected people, the first Gulf nation to do so in a major policy shift designed to give expatriates a bigger stake in the economy and foster growth, Bloomberg reports.
“We adopted law amendments that allow granting the UAE citizenship to investors, specialised talents and professionals including scientists, doctors, engineers, artists, authors and their families. The new directives aim to attract talents that contribute to our development journey,” Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum said in a tweet.
“The UAE cabinet, local Emiri courts and executive councils will nominate those eligible for citizenship under clear criteria set for each category. The law allows receivers of the UAE passport to keep their existing citizenship.”
Foreign residents make up more than 80% of the UAE’s population and have for decades been a mainstay of its economy. The UAE comprises seven sheikhdoms, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Oil-rich Gulf states, which for decades jealously guarded privileges for the small number of citizens, have been forced to consider longer residency and limited citizenship for foreigners as they seek to attract investment and diversify from oil.
Last year, the UAE abolished the need for companies to have Emirati shareholders, in a major shake-up of foreign ownership laws to attract investment into an economy reeling from the coronavirus and a decline in oil prices.
A top source disclosed on Tuesday that the First Lady has now relocated quietly to the UAE for over three months. No one knows when she would return to the country.
Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari, has been in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, since September after the wedding of her daughter, Hanan, and has therefore not been involved in any government activity, SaharaReporters has gathered.
We gathered that the First Lady is not in a hurry to return, despite spending over three months, as she reportedly stated that the Aso Rock Villa was not secure for her family.
This concern was triggered by a shooting incident which occurred in June and caused some panic among occupants of the Aso Villa.
It was reported that there was a crisis in Aso Villa after security details of the President’s wife removed Buhari’s Personal Assistant, Sabiu ‘Tunde’ Yusuf, from the place after he refused to embark on a 14-day isolation period upon returning from a trip to Lagos.
Shortly afterwards, the First Lady’s ADC, Usman Shugaba, in an attempt to apprehend Yusuf, reportedly fired gunshots but the President’s aide escaped to the residence of Mamman Daura where he spent the night.
Yusuf soon ordered the arrest of Aisha’s ADC and other security details in connivance with Buhari’s chief security officer. Buhari had ordered a probe into the alleged security breach inside the Presidential Villa.
Inside sources say the latest step by @NGRPresident could further stir bad blood among different power blocs in Aso Villa, especially with the First Lady.
It will be recalled that on September 4, Aisha Buhari held a flamboyant wedding for President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Hanan, and Mohammed Turad.
Apart from the opulence on display, event planners for the wedding were flown in from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to add colour and spice to the ceremony.
Earlier in August, the First Lady had also flown to Dubai in a private jet owned by billionaire Mohammed Indimi under the guise of a medical emergency to shop for luxury items ahead of the wedding.
Most of the items, including souvenirs used for the wedding occasion, were brought in from the Arabian country.
A top source disclosed on Tuesday that the First Lady has now relocated quietly to the UAE for over three months. No one knows when she would return to the country.
The Presidency source said, “Aisha Buhari has relocated quietly to Dubai. She has been going to the UAE even before the daughter’s wedding.
“Before the wedding, she also stayed there for months during lockdown, shopping and relaxing. But since the end of the wedding, she has been away owing to security concerns in the villa.”
Some Nigerians have noticed her disappearance from the public space for the past three months. Checks on her Twitter page shows she last tweeted in October.
It was gathered that occasionally, she issued statements announcing the distribution of palliatives but has never been seen at any official functions.
The September wedding, which had security personnel prohibiting guests from taking photographs, saw the event planners and other vendors flown in from Dubai pocketing huge amounts in United States dollars for their services.
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