No fewer than 400 shops, stores and stalls containing goods worth millions of naira were destroyed in a fire outbreak that engulfed Nguru popular market last Saturday.
Nguru is one of the ancient commercial towns of the state connected with railway that attracted businesses and trades from far and near for many years.
In recent times, the popular market was reported to have experienced many fire incidences but on lower scales than the latest one.
It was gathered that the Saturday inferno started around 8:00 am and lasted for more than five hours before it was put off by residents with the help of men of the fire service.
Some affected traders interviewed by our correspondent in the aftermath of the incident revealed that huge losses were incurred as more than 400 shops were destroyed and several jobs were lost.
Mohammed Sani Sabo, who owns two shops in the market, said both shops had been completely burnt down.
He said many of them have now become helpless and don’t know what to do.
Although the cause of the fire outbreak is yet to be ascertained, Sabo attributed it to an electrical fault because it started a few minutes after electricity was restored and there were many wrong connections by the traders,” he said.
He said that the only way to avoid fire outbreaks in the market is to prevent traders from wrong electrical installations or disconnect electricity from the market.
Samaila Ahmed, another trader, described the outbreak as unfortunate especially at the time that youths are battling with unemployment in the country.
He said thousands of youths who have dependents have lost their means of livelihood.
“They earn on daily basis from the market and their families survive from it. I can tell you that some would not have what to eat today.”
He said the fire outbreak came at a critical time as most of the traders had just restocked their shops with goods on Friday evening.
“I can’t estimate how much I lost but the items we stocked in this shop and our other stores were worth over N150 million or more.
“The larger percentage of our traders are small-scale entrepreneurs and would find it difficult to easily recover from this damage,” he added.
Another trader, Alhaji Ibrahim Mai Bulawus, said he lost goods worth over N100 million.
“I have over 70 young people working under me, so we all woke up jobless because we lost our wealth”
The Chairman Nguru Marketers Association, Alhaji Ibrahim Yura, called on the government and other relevant agencies to come to their aid.
He commended the fire service, security outfits and rescuers who turned out in large to put off the fire.
The Executive Secretary, Yobe State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Dr Mohammed Goje has said 441shops and stores were affected in the inferno.
“One hundred and thirty-seven were locked-up shops while 304 were stalls. They cut across provision, textiles, jewelry, cosmetics, GSM and accessories businesses.”
Meanwhile, the state Governor, Mai Mala Buni, has assured the victims of government support.
Buni while commiserating with the victims explained why his administration embarked on the construction of modern markets in four major towns in the state.
Buni said the markets would be equipped with state of art facilities including, roads and fire service stations to easily control fire incidences.
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