Kaduna — Exactly 59 days after 11 members of his family perished in an inferno which gutted their family's one-storey house in Kaduna, Mahdi Muhammad Uthman Adam, the only survivor of the incident is now dead.

Mahdi died in the early hours of Monday, August 13 at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) where he was receiving treatment after his anal cancer operation.

Weekly Trust reported how on that early hours of Friday June 15, the one storey building of Malam Muhammad Uthman Adam - Mahdi's father - was gutted by midnight fire. The Bakin Ruwa Kaduna community could not save the lives of the 11 occupants. Nine of them were Mahdi's immediate family members including his father, mother, seven brothers and sisters, while the remaining two were his cousins and a six-year-old daughter who came for a visit.

Since the incident, Mahdi had not been told about the tragedy. But he had inquired about his family, and why they stopped visiting him at the hospital Mustapha Uthman, his cousin who looked after him always shielded the truth from Mahdi.

"Initially, I used to tell him they have travelled to our home town, Wukari for the preparation of my wedding with his late elder sister, Basima, initially slated for on July 6.

"I told him that immediately after the wedding, Hajiya Mai Sarari Chanchangi - a friend to his mother - has sponsored the parents to Umra (lesser Hajj). And his other siblings cannot come Zaria because they were occupied with their academics and looking after the home," Mustapha said.

Mahdi died with that notion. Mustapha prayed that he will know the truth when he meets his family at the Jannatul Fiddaus (paradise).

Weekly Trust reported June 23, that Mahdi was diagnosed for what initially was said to be pile. After so many years of treatment, the pile later metamorphosed to anal cancer which led Mahdi to bleed blood from the anus. The situation deteriorated to the extent that he could not control his faeces and therefore was using napkin before the successful operation which transferred the anus to his abdomen.

Mahdi was billed for another operation that will transfer his means of urinating as well to the abdomen before he died. The ABUTH had confirmed that his two kidneys were affected by the cancer.

Mahdi's funeral rites were performed inside the ancient city of Zaria in his grandfather's friend house last Monday.