Fire razes Maiduguri main market, Zulum promises N1bn relief

Tragedy struck in Maiduguri in the early hours of Sunday morning, February 26, when fire razed large sections of the popular Monday Market, the largest market in Borno State.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but eyewitnesses told The PUNCH that it started between 2:30am and 3am.

Already, residents are suggesting political causes for the fire, which the Borno state Fire Service struggled to subdue since 3am.

When The PUNCH went around sections of the market, hundreds of traders were scampering off with whatever wares they could save from their shops to avoid losing everything in case the fire spreads.

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“I lost everything in my five shops,” Abubakar Isa, dealer of second-hand clothes told The PUNCH tearfully, adding, “I cannot immediately estimate the cost of my losses, but I can tell you that it is over N30 million.”

Musa Sulaiman had two shops of home decoration items such as rugs and suitcases.

“The two shops were all razed down, and I lost everything,” he told our correspondent in a guttural tone, estimating the cost of his losses at “nothing less than N50 million.”

Alhaji Modu Kijimi lost his two shops of empty sacks. He was too emotionally devastated to estimate the cost of his losses.

Alhaji Sani Idris Hausari, a major livestock dealer who has five shops of live chickens, guineafowl, and pigeons said he lost all his birds. He could not estimate the cost of his losses.

“Livestock sellers have lost about 20 shops with hundreds of birds,” he confirmed.

When The PUNCH went around the market, tens of security agents, mainly soldiers and police, had been deployed to guard the market against the perilous infestation of looters.

Teargas was intermittently sprayed to scare away the crowd of people flooding into the still-burning market intending to loot properties.

Speaking to our reporter, a youth in the area confirmed, “Soon after the fire flared up, criminals began to trickle into the market, looting shops.

“I can tell you that hundreds of millions of naira worth of properties have already been looted.”

Governor Babagana Umara Zulum, who went around the burning market, Sunday morning, announced a N1 billion relief for the victims, promising to see the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), immediately for more relief and also urged humanitarian organisations to relieve the victims.

This is the third time over the last 20 years that the fire razed down Maiduguri’s Monday Market.