Traders at Ekiosa Market in Benin City, Edo State, have begun tallying their losses in the wake of the fire that engulfed a section of the market in the early hours of Tuesday.
Daily Post reports that the market, located by Third Junction, Murtala Muhammed Way, has about 20 shops housing various items estimated to be billions of naira, destroyed by the inferno.
One of the victims, identified as Sani Yakubu, said the fire started between 1:30 am and 2 am.
Yakubu, who is also the caretaker of the building, estimated that traders lost goods worth billions of naira in the fire.
According to him, the fire started between 1:30 am and 2 am, and we don’t know the cause of the fire.
“I was at home when they called me that the building was on fire, and that they could not save their goods as the whole shops were on fire.
“Traders and Bureau De Change operators have shops here. Besides, the goods, dollars, euros, and other international as well as local currencies were burnt to ashes in the fire.
“Nobody took anything out of their shops, provisions, electronic gadgets, generators were destroyed. I can say that goods worth billions of naira were lost to the fire. Our hope is in God, and we believe it is an act of God,” he said.
Another trader, Ugochinyere Francis, lamented that she lost over a million in the inferno that razed the shops.
“We couldn’t do anything when we came because the flame was much, that no one could go near it. I lost over a million naira, but I don’t want to cry, and I know God will take control.
“I have a shop here, and my mother also has a shop. I sell cosmetics and articles. They called me at about 2 am that our shops were on fire, but before we could reach there, the fire had already enveloped the whole shop. It was such that no one could go near,” she added.
She, however, appealed to governments to come to their aid as their means of livelihood have been destroyed.
Others who also spoke on the development, however, called on the state government to assist them in starting a new life.
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