By Francis Nansak , Lafia.
The House of Representatives member(Nasarawa , Toto Federal Constituency), north central Nigeria, Hon.Abdulmumuni Ari and traders in Nasarawa central market have blamed the fire fighting service stationed in Nasarawa town and “Power Holding Company of Nigeria” for the huge loses in the incident.
However, in his face account, an indigene of the federal constiturncy,Yakubu Omaki, said “the fire was caused by carelessness of some shop owners in the market.”
Ari, who was at the scene of the fire incident, to symphatise with the traders, donated N500,000of to help the victims evacuate destroyed ware house where sesame seeds and melon were kept in hundreds bags.
He assured that he would do everything humanly possible to ensure that intervention of NEMA, an agency of the Federal Government as well as the Nasarawa State Government, under the able leadership of Engineer Abdullahi Sule.
Speaking through his media aide, the lawmaker said” As you can see the market located here in Nasarawa town is not only patronized by our people of Nasarawa Local Government alone, but people from all walks of life come in here to buy and sale.
“This portion of the market which has been razed by fire is one of the warehouses in the market that sesame seed, known in Hausa as Ridi and Melon” Egusi is stocked with large numbers of bags.
” I couldn’t have stayed longer than now to take assessment of the devastating and disastrous fire incident that occured on Saturday morning , leaving owners of the farm produces as well as traders counting their loses.
From preliminary findings, I understand the fire started as a result of the unstable supply of electricity , which would had been brought down if the fire fighters of the Nasarawa State fire service had promptly responded when the incident was reported.
“But I was meant to understand that they did not show up, talk more of tackling the raging fire that consumed the entire warehouse.
” I am their representative and I will within my capacity do everything to make sure that NEMA and the Nasarawa State Government come in and help restore the hope of this traders who are already counting their loses in Hundred and Millions of Naira , at a very critical economy situation as the one we are facing” Hon, Ari said.
Lamenting on behalf of others, the chairman , Noma Tushin Arziki Cooperative Society , Nasarawa , Alhaji Ibrahim Salihu Ache , said the incident happened in the early hours of 19th August , at about 3 a.m .
He said:” I was contacted on phone, that fire is burning in our cooperative warehouse, I had to rushed to the warehouse at that time , it was only one shop that was on fire , and that is where the fire started . I quickly went to the fire service office and met with the personnel . I was the one that even woke them from sleep to tell them that there is fire outbreak.
“And they said o’ Alhaji , sorry, we can not assist you because the vehicle for fire fighting is not working for almost two weeks now.
“I was shocked and had to return to the market disappointed.
“But with the help of people around us , we had to struggle but at that time the fire had extended into some parts of the warehouse .
“Sincerely speaking, we have to thank the Emir of Nasarawa and the Eze Igbo, who are our neighbours , the emir open his gate to allow people into his resident and fetch water, which we used .
” So we have lost a lot of things “What we lost at the moment are sesame (Ridi) and melon(Agusi) seeds . Everybody knows that this is the season of melon, where the farmers bring their farm produce to the market to sell. These are people that untill they sell their melon before they can afford food to eat in their houses.
“Going by our estimate statistically , we have lost over One Hundred and Fifty Three Million Naira(#153,000.000.00),he recounted.
Alhaji Ibrahim further explained that, there were over 170 bags of melon stored in the ware house , stating that since Saturday when the fire gutted the warehouse , they had written a letter of complaint to the Senator representing the zone , house of representatives member and also to the state house of assembly member
He blamed the cause of the fire disaster on PHCN and the fire service for their inabilities which led to the fire outbreak and looses in the market.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
(c).Nasarawa Newsline .
