GOODS worth millions of naira were destroyed in a midnight inferno at the Minna Ultra Modern Market in Niger State yesterday.
The fire, according to eyewitnesses started from a textile shop and affected about 48 shops in the market.
The incident occurred at around 1a.m. on Sunday morning and the cause of the fire was blamed on generator set as there was no power supply from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) at the time.
Some of the affected shops owners, who spoke to our correspondent expressed shock at the incident.
Mrs. Anne Ogale of Shop No 42, Alhaji Babale Abubakar of Shop No 35/36 and Alhaji Ismaila Maizere, who were in tears while speaking to our correspondent, said that there is more to the real cause of the fire because according to them, there was no power supply from PHCN and no generator set was on as at the time the market was closed to business on Saturday evening.
It was gathered that lack of access roads further compounded the woes of the traders as the men of the State Fire Service, who came to control and quench the inferno were helpless as they could not get access to the area of the inferno.
Investigation revealed that most of the victims lost millions of naira in cash due to the public holiday and weekend because they could not go to the bank to deposit proceeds of their sales within the period.
One of the affected victims, Alhaji Salihu of Shop No 18 who was rumoured to have lost about N40 million cash and some foreign currency (dollars) immediately collapsed on his arrival at the market and was rushed to hospital for urgent attention.
He was said to have bought the dollars with the intention of traveling to Togo yesterday (Sunday) to buy goods before the incident occurred.
The victims however, appealed to the Niger State Government and other relevant agencies to as a matter of urgency come to their aid with the view of cushioning the effect on the affected suffered from the inferno.
“We are appealing to governments at every level and other relevant bodies to please assist us renovate the shops urgently while other assistance can be rendered, so that we can start a fresh because we have lost everything, you can see it you,” one of them pleaded.
The Niger State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Ketso had earlier visited the market to assess the extent of the damage with the affected victims where he held a meeting with the executives of the market, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) to take inventory of the loss in each of the shops with the view of coming to their aid.
