A fire outbreak at a GSM village close to Kpata market in Lokoja, Kogi State, has destroyed goods worth millions of Naira.
Sadly, shop owners could not salvage anything from the fire which began in the early hours of Thursday due to a power upsurge.
One of the affected traders, Muhammed Yahaya, who lost his goods to the fire said, “Somebody called me around 5:30 a.m. 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. 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”.
He called on the Kogi State Government to assist those who lost properties to fire and rebuild 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.
The Financial Secretary of the Kogi Association of Phones and Accessories Dealers, KAPAD, Moses Felix, said the he was affected physically, mentally and emotionally.
He 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 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 and are under my payroll. Definitely, they are going back home without a job”.