Olayemi Esan and Salihu Mohammed
The FCT Minister, Muhammad Bello, on Thursday visited the Tipper Market, Gwarinpa area of Abuja over the recent inferno that destroyed goods worth millions of naira.
Bello, while commiserating with the victims of the inferno also described it as an unfortunate and a heart-breaking incident and assured that FCT administration would find ways of assisting the victims that were affected by the inferno so as to cushion the effects of the terrible incident.
He said: “...And for all those who lost their goods and property in the fire incident, is not because they have offended God. Lets take it in good fate and God’s will; FCT will do everything at its best to ensure that we put to an end to these ugly occurrences".
AbujaCityJournal team later approached the Seriki Kasuwa of the Tipper Garage Market for interview but she declined comment.
An Ankara fabric trader from Osun State, Mrs Folashade Alimi explains how the fire started and the causality recorded.
She said, the fire started while some traders were sleeping because they trade and sleep inside the market.
"We thought its just a small fire that can be put out in a jiffy until, the fire started spreading.
A trader, who simply introduced herself as Mary spoke amidst sobs how the cosmetics shop she spent years to build reduced to ashes.
"I was in my house this money when i saw the news on internet that Tipper Market is on fire. I was arguing with my neighbour that, it cant be but rushing here now, my shop was burnt down with all my cosmetics products"
Another victim of the inferno, Mrs Stella Onyebuchi laments the unprofessional attitude of Officials of the FCT Fire service. "They came with an empty tank and this sounded hurtful. We are in Gwarinpa for God's sake, the supposed biggest Estate in West Africa. The fire service men came late and yet came empty" she said.
Lamenting on the incident another trader who sells Tricycle Spare parts told our reporters how he lost about 50 million naira to the inferno, saying, he just returned from a business trip.
"I have just stocked my shop with Tricycle spare parts and all were burnt to aches m this morning. In fact, I don't know where to start", he lamented.
A source told AbujaCityJournal that the fire outbreak, which affected over 100 shops and other adjoining makeshift stores, could be linked to an electrical upsurge.
The fire, which was said to have started around 1am on Thursday, had lasted over two hours before the arrival of Fire Service men with empty tank
