Parts of Wadata Market, Makurdi, the Benue State capital, was on Wednesday razed by an early morning fire outbreak, destroying goods, particularly foodstuffs running into millions of naira.
The fire was said to have started around 1.am
According to a report by Punch, the fire started from the poultry section of the market and spread through the fish section to the palm oil and grains sections of the market.
The Punch correspondent who visited the market gathered that for more than four hours, both the state fire service and residents battled to put out the fire and eventually succeeded in bringing it under control around 5am.
At the time of visit, the report said smoke was still billowing from the wreckage even as traders, whose shops were affected, were seen trying to salvage what was left of their wares.
Some of the affected traders cried as they counted their losses while watching helplessly how the fire had reduced their stocked shops to ashes.
Some of those who spoke with Punch said they lost over 460 bags of grains to the inferno claiming that most of them had taken loans to stock their shops ahead of the New Year.
They called on government to come to their aid.
The Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Doo Shave, was quoting as saying the fire service received a distress call from one of the affected traders around 2am, adding that fire trucks were driven to the scene, while firefighters put out the fire under 5am.
Shave said that the state Fire service was presently well-equipped to fight fire, adding that the service would still need smoke detectors to respond better to fire outbreaks in the state.
He said, “We have five functional trucks in the state now. We did not arrive late; we got there as soon as the fire was reported.”
Meanwhile, the Benue Government has donated N30m to the victims of the fire incident.
Gov. Samuel Ortom announced the donation when he visited the burnt section of the market later on Wednesday.
The money he said was an interim support to the traders.
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The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Ortom sympathised with the traders and assured them that the government would assist them “in every way possible.”
He said the gesture was to enable them to start a new life pending the outcome of the report of a committee he had constituted to inquire into the incident.
The committee would be headed by the Secretary to the State Government, Tony Ijoh (SAN).
Ortom explained that the committee would find out the remote and immediate causes of the fire, the challenges in the market and recommend how they could be addressed.
The governor while recalling the damage caused by fire at the Gboko Market on two different occasions recently, said government was considering ways of addressing fire outbreaks even as he directed that boreholes be dug in the market.
He also urged security agencies to adequately guard the market until normalcy returned.
Earlier, the Vice President, Makurdi Traders’ Union, Yusuf Abdulahi, said the fire victims were mainly petty traders whose livelihood depended on their daily incomes from the market.
Abdulahi further urged the state government to assist the traders in rebuilding their shops and providing other relief materials to them.
He said statistics on the affected sections and the value of wares lost could not be established immediately, adding that the union had commenced collection of data.
He also disclosed that five sections — fish, yams, butchers, grain, industrial and allied materials — were burnt.
