Traders wailed bitterly yesterday as some of them tried to salvage the remains of their ruined wares after a large section of the Wadata Market in Makurdi metropolis was gutted by fire.
Daily Trust reports that goods worth millions of Naira were destroyed in the fire.
Though the smoke was still billowing at about 10:00am, some of the traders, mainly grain sellers, were seen gathering what remained of their burnt goods while others were going through the rubbles in vain because there were nothing left of their wares.
Our correspondent gathered that the fire started about 1:00 am from the poultry abattoir section, then spread quickly to the vegetable, palm oil, fish, allied and grain sections of the popular market situated by the riverside of Wadata.
Witnesses said despite efforts by the Fire Service and individuals to quench the fire, the inferno raged until about 5:00am when it was brought under control.
A fish seller, Halima Ebije, whose shop was razed completely said it was the first time since over 20 years of her trading in Wadata market that such fire incident happened.
“This market, to the best of my knowledge is the oldest in Makurdi. It has never experienced fire outbreak since my trading here. I’ve lost my shop and some fish but I’m glad that no life was lost to the fire. It’s really a painful way to begin the new year,” she said.
Ebije said it was hard to immediately attribute the fire incident to electrical fault because electricity was usually disconnected at the close of each market day.
Another respondent, Ali Garuba, who sells onion, said some traders like him arrived the scene of incident about 1:30am when the news broke that the market was on fire and that they were able to rescue their goods to safer location.
Garuba added, “however my section of the market was so fortunate that the fire didn’t get to our shop. If it did, however, we had already removed our goods so we would have suffered less.”
For Rahamatu Mahamnadu, Samsiya Ibrahim, Ladi Isa and Maria Samuel, who separately spoke to our correspondent, said they had lost over 200 bags of grains to the inferno.
The women appealed for government support, saying, that most of them had to take loans to stock their shops ahead of the New Year before the unfortunate incident occurred.
On his part, the Vice President of Makurdi Traders Union, Yusuf Abdullahi Gambo, said that the cause of the fire could not be immediately ascertained, stressing that the union would put up machinery to determine the cause of the fire and quantity of goods lost.
Meanwhile, the Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Doo Shave, explained that the State Fire Service received a call from one of the affected traders around 2:00am and immediately mobilised the fire trucks to the scene and eventually brought the fire under control at about 5:00am.
Shave told newsmen in Makurdi that the Fire Service had been well equipped in recent times to fight fire especially within the state capital.
“We have five functional trucks in the state now. We did not arrive late but we got there as soon as we got the report. Fire was reported to us at about 2:00am and within 10 minutes we mobilized to the scene,” he said.
Meanwhile, Governor Samuel Ortom has visited the scene of the fire incidence and directed the release of N30 million to the traders to help cushion the immediate effect of their loses.
