Fire Razes Kogi Phone Market, Destroys Property Worth Millions
Properties worth several millions of Naira have been destroyed in a fire incident that engulfed the GSM village around Kpata market in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.
Reports indicated that the fire outbreak started in the early hours of Thursday due to a power upsurge and unfortunately most of the shop owners were unable to salvage anything from the fire as things got out of control.
One of the popular traders in the market, Muhammed Yahaya, who lost his goods in the fire incident, said; “Somebody called me around 5:30 am today that the market is on fire. On getting there, many shops have already been burnt down.
“So, we tried to look at the actual cause of the fire outbreak. From all indications so far, we were told by the people that stay within that the power voltage they brought was high.
“The neighbouring houses there said it affected their fans, light and other things. Actually, this might be the cause of the fire outbreak in the market. Millions of naira worth of goods have been destroyed. Laptops, phones and accessories got burnt.
Clearly despondent over the mishap, Yahaya said; “The most unfortunate thing is that most of these people just received their goods this week. It has never happened before. It is still a big shock to every one of us who owns shop in the market”.
While appealing to the Kogi State Government to intervene financially and assist those who lost their goods and rebuild the GSM village, he said; “We know we have a Governor that has a listening ear. He is a father to us.
“As you can see, we are Youths who are resourceful. Most of us are graduates, and we are not waiting for the Government to provide jobs for us. We created the jobs on our own.
“The properties that we have been nurturing for over 15 years got burnt within an hour. We want the government to look into it by assisting us financially and rebuilding the market. In this market, we have about 200 Youths who are engaged in this kind of business. People were hungry before this happened”.
Addressing journalists on the incident, Financial Secretary, Kogi Association of Phones and Accessories Dealers, (KAPAD) Moses Felix said the fire has affected him physically, mentally and emotionally.
Felix said; “I was crying this morning when my shop got burnt. I couldn’t do anything. I am into laptop repairs and sales. My goods that arrived this week got burnt completely, so am starting from scratch.
“I am a married Man with kids. Where do I go from here and how can I feed my family in the midst of this economic hardship? The Government should come to our aide. We provide jobs for people.”
According to him; “I have like three boys that are working for me who are under my payroll. Definitely, they are going back home without job”.
However, as of the time of filing this report, fire service and emergency personnel were making efforts to put out the fire.
