Traders lament as fire razes Kogi phone market

Properties worth millions of naira have been destroyed following a fire that gutted the GSM village around Kpata Market in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.

Our correspondent gathered that the fire outbreak started in the early hours of Thursday 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 lamented, “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. From all indications so far, we were told by the people who stay within that the power voltage they brought was high.

“The occupants of neighbouring houses there said it affected their fans, electricity and other things. This might be the cause of the fire 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 everyone who owns shops in the market.”

He 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 who has listening ears. He is a father to us all. As you can see, we are resourceful youths. Most of us are graduates, and we are not waiting for 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 engaged in this kind of business. People were hungry before this happened” he added.

Also speaking to newsmen,  the Financial Secretary, Kogi Association of Phones and Accessories Dealers, Moses Felix, said the incident had 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 this economic hardship? The government should come to our aid. We provide jobs for people. I have about three boys who are working for me under my payroll. Definitely, they are going back home without a job.”

As of the time of filing this report, fire service officials were making efforts to put out the fire.