The early hours of Wednesday was not really good for owners of about 200 stores of a grain market in Gombe State, as property worth millions of naira were destroyed in an inferno.
Alhaji Usman Adamu, the caretaker chairman of the Grains Market Association, stated that in the incident, which happened at about 3:00am, most members of the association lost their goods.
“As at now, we have not assessed the damage, but millions of naira was lost, because most of the produce are beans, bambara nuts and such bags cost between N15,000 and N18,000.”
According to him, the disaster was due to an electrical spark from one of the shops in the market.
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He appealed to governments at all levels to immediately assist the traders to cushion the effects of the disaster on them.
Malam Dahiru Adamu, the director of Gombe State Fire Service, said that the service received the report at about 3. 35 a.m. and immediately rushed to the scene to quench the fire.
Reports have it that five hours after the incident, firefighters were still battling to put out the fire.
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Senior District Head of Gombe, Alhaji Abdulkadir Abubakar, who visited the scene, sympathised with those whose shops were burnt in the inferno, and advised them to consider the incident as an act of God.
Abubakar advised the traders to take stock of the extent of damage and forward their report to the relevant authorities.
NAN
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