By Tina George, Minna
Traders of the Kure Ultra Modern Market in Minna on Friday lost millions of naira worth of goods to a early morning fire.
The fire which gutted over 70 shops was said to have started from a tea and noodles seller, whose extension shop is very close to the palm oil block, who had left his stove on and went for an early morning prayers leaving the fire unattended to.
The fire began at 6 am and while efforts at curtailing it was on, another area ignited and it took hours before the new part was brought under control.
Traders were seen trying to save their goods from being consumed from the inferno while others were being held back from entering into the inferno in a bid to rescue what can be rescued.
Traders, especially women, were seen crying and weeping as most of them had rushed down from their houses and could be seen still trying to come in terms with what is happening.
Most affected in the fire were traders of clothings, palm oil and groundnut oil.
It took the intervention of the men of the state fire service to prevent the fire from spreading to more shops.
The Chairman of the Kure Market Traders Association, Alhaji Yusuf who is also a victim said he lost a complete truck of palm oil loaded of four hundred gallons.
He said that the truck arrived on Thursday night and was offloaded in his shop only for him to hear in the morning about the fire wondering how he would be able to recoup his loss.
The state Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello visited the market and commiserated with the affected traders saying an investigation would be done to find out the cause of the fire.
He assured that strategy would be put in place to prevent future reoccurrance.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Gubernatorial candidate, Umar Nasko also visited the scene and sympathised with affected shop owners.
Nasko said when voted into power by February this year, will look into ways of bringing the yearly fire incident in the market to an end.
