News reaching us says that over N20 million naira worth of goods has been destroyed by fire at second hand cloth market in Gusau, Zamfara state. The incident occurred late Tuesday. Twelve shops, housing second hand clothes and other valuables belonging to the traders were affected and loses is now being counted.
Alhaji Adamu Maigwanjo who was one of the victims, who spoke to NAN on behalf of others said he lost over N3 million goods. He said many traders in the market even lost more that what was estimated.
He consequently appealed on behalf of the traders to the federal government to come to their aid immediately so that they could resume business particularly at this season of economic recession in the contry.
Malam Sanusi Kwatarkwashi, the Executive Secretary of the state emergency management agency, said he has mobilized staff to carry out an assessment of the disaster. Kwatarkwashi who described the incident as very disheartening called on the victims to be patient and consider the disaster as an act of God which reasons are best known to him.
Other residents and traders in the state expressed worries over the failure of the state fire service to respond to the fire before it spread to other areas.
However, the inferno was finally put out by the combined efforts of the traders and residents around the market. Fire fighting vehicles of the state have either broken down or are short of fuel to carry out any rescue operation in case anyone was trapped in any of the buildings.