Goods worth millions destroyed as fire guts Minna market
Properties worth millions of naira have been destroyed in Kure ultra-modern market in Minna, Niger State after a fire accident.
The inferno started on Thursday night and consumed shops and stores numbering over 60.
Despite efforts by the firefighters, many goods were destroyed as the traders counted their loss.
Others struggled for access into their shops to salvage some items.
Goods lost were estimated to be about N700 million with traders of palm oil mostly affected.
It was gathered that the fire started from a tea and noodles seller whose extension shop was very close to the palm oil block.
The seller was said to have left his stove on and went for an early morning prayers leaving the fire unattended to.
It took some hours before men of the state fire service could put off the raging fire from consuming more shops and blocks.
Some hours into curtailing the fire, another part of the market was ignited at about 11 am which started from a locked shop.
It took almost two more hours before the fire could be put off.
Security agents from the Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Federal Road Safety Corps and local vigilante were on ground to prevent miscreants from stealing as the traders scampered to mitigate their losses.
Niger Sate Governor, Abubakar Bello, visited the market to commiserate with the affected traders, bemoaning the annual occurrence of fire outbreak in the market.
He said efforts would be put in place to avert future occurrences while investigation would be launched to find out the cause of the fire and work out strategies to prevent future fire outbreak.
The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Umar Nasko, also visited the market to console with the affected traders.
He promised to find a lasting solution to the yearly incident, if elected into office.
The cause of the fire is not yet known but some traders said it started from the section of the market where groundnut oil is being sold.
The recent fire outbreak in Kure market is not the first as traders recalled that same incident was recorded in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
The traders complained that the fire would have been curtailed if not for the congestion in the market which hindered easy access by firefighters.
They appealed to the Federal Government for intervention, lamenting insecurity in the market.
