Not less than 90 shops was on Monday gutted by fire in a Yola market, the capital of Adamawa state. According to some eyes witnesses, the fire which started at about 2:30 am destroyed property worth billions of naira.
The effort to put off the fire by the neighbors proved abortive as the firefighters could not get there on time because inaccessible road leading to the market. According to Mr. Haruna Hammanfuro, the Executive Secretary, Adamawa State Management Agency, who confirmed the story, “the inferno was the worst ever witnessed in the history of the market but thank God no life was lost”.
The affected are crying out to the state government to come to their Aid as a matter of urgency. Deputy State Governor, Martins Babale who was among the early callers to the scene, promised that the government would assess the extent of the damages and see how they could support the traders to get on with their business as soon as possible.
A shop owner in Yola market, Mallam Babayola Maijimilla said’ that the fire started around the middle of the market and efforts by sympathizers to extinguish it was rebuffed by security operatives who denied them access into the market to prevent hoodlums from looting our wares.”
The state police has promised of providing adequate security in the market to prevent hoodlums from capitalizing on the sad situation to loot the traders shops….even as he was speaking with the newsmen, the state police Commissioner said that some hoodlums had already been nabbed.
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