Properties worth millions of naira have been destroyed in an early morning inferno that occurred at the popular GSM Village around Kpata Market in Lokoja, the Kogi State's capital.
Leadership gathered that the fire outbreak occurred in the early hours of Thursday due to a power upsurge and shop owners could not salvage anything from their wares as the inferno got out of control.
One of the traders in the market, Muhammed Yahaya who lost his goods to the inferno narrated the incident saying, "Somebody called me around 5:30am 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 outbreak.
"From all indications so far, we were told by the people that stay within, that the power voltage was high at the time electricity was restored in the market.
"The residents of neighbouring houses said it affected their fans, light and other things. Actually, this might be the cause of the fire outbreak 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 shop owners in the market".
He appealed to the Kogi State Government to intervene by assisting those who lost their goods financially and to rebuild the GSM Village.
"We know we have a Governor that has listening ears. He is a father to us. As you can see, we are youths who are resourceful. Most of us are graduates, and we are not waiting for the government to provide jobs for us. We created the jobs on our own.
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"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 who are engaged in this kind of business," he added.
Also speaking on the incident, the Financial Secretary, Kogi Association of Phones and Accessories Dealers, (KAPAD) Moses Felix said the incident has 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 the scratch.
I am a married man with kids. Where do I go from here and how can I feed my family in the midst of this economic hardship? The Government should come to our aid. We provide jobs for people. I have like three boys that are working for me who are under my payroll. They are definitely going back home without a job," he lamented.
