A fire outbreak, in the early hours of today, Thursday, destroyed properties worth millions of naira at a GSM village around Kpata market in Lokoja the Kogi State capital.
According to reports, the fire outbreak started in the market due to a power upsurge.
It was further learnt that shop owners could not salvage anything from the fire after it got out of control.
One of the traders in the market, Muhammed Yahaya who lost his goods to the fire narrated the incident saying, “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 stayed 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.
“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 a shop in the market.”
Yahaya however appealed to the Kogi State Government to intervene by assisting those who lost their goods financially and rebuilding the GSM village.
“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” he added.
Also Speaking to journalists, the Financial Secretary, Kogi Association of Phones and Accessories Dealers, (KAPAD) Moses Felix said the incident has affected him physically, mentally and emotionally.
According to him,” 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 I 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 aid.
“We provide jobs for people. I have like three boys that are working for me who are under my payroll. Definitely, they are going back home without job,” Felix lamented
The fire service officials arrived at the scene and efforts were being made to put out the fire.
