It faded quickly the moment he started recounting the losses he suffered in the inferno to our correspondent.
“A similar fire incident happened here 10 years ago that destroyed all my goods and machines. I struggled for a long time to get back on my feet. Now, everything is gone again,” he explained, his eyes downcast. A furniture maker at the market, Lanre Wahab, never had premonition about the tragedy that brought tears to his eyes.
The father of two lamented that he had no other means of livelihood and appealed to the government to help cushion the loss. “It is my wife who is assisting in the family upkeep now because she is also working. My brother lives with us and we have children,” he added. “They responded on time but being inflammable materials, the fire quickly destroyed everything. All the three sets of chairs I had completed were burnt. I just returned from a customer whose furniture worth N300,000 was part of the property destroyed. Government should help us in whatever way they can. This incident has shattered our business and we cannot cope.”Like Mogaji, the Sunday incident was the second time he would suffer enormous loss at the market.
The market Chairman, Alhaji Bello Aliyu, said three fire incidents had been recorded in the market since he got there in 1980. He said it is hard to prevent recurrence except the government put in place proper structures for the traders.
Depending on dependants😪
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