From John Adams and Umar Yunusa, Minna
An early morning fire on Thursday razed no fewer than 57 shops, leaving goods worth millions of naira destroyed at the Mokwa main market in Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State.
The fire was said to have started at about 4:00 am when the shopowners were at home.
A source close to the market, Abubakar Umar, disclosed that the inferno razed many shops and destroyed properties worth millions of naira with no help coming from anywhere
According to him, the ‘fire incident destroyed many shops in the market. The situation was very serious because there was no help coming from anywhere.
‘The fire started around 4:00 pm this morning and it was so serious that nobody could go near it. The harmattan weather too could not help the situation,’ he said.
He further stated that no life was lost to the incident as when it occurred nobody was available.
A trader and spokesman of Mokwa market, Abdulmalik Jibrin, said that the fire incident which occurred around 3 am to 4 pm had destroyed millions of naira worth of properties.
‘When I got to the scene, the fire incidents had consumed about 7 shops which were beyond control then,’ Jibrin said.
Lamenting his loss to the incident, he said the inferno destroyed his goods including 400 bags of Soya beans, bags of maize, melons and peppers.
‘My goods which were worth about 150 million have been destroyed by the early morning inferno.
‘At this point, we need the intervention of government and other stakeholders to help us,’ Jibrin said.
Also speaking, Adamu Usman, revenue officer of Mokwa LGA, confirmed the incident, saying that about 57 shops were destroyed by the early morning inferno.
Firefighters were also spotted at the scene around 6:00 am after much damage has been done.
As of the time of this report, there is no report of loss of life to the inferno.