Kebbi sets up com’tee to probe market fire

The Kebbi State Government says it has setup a high powered committee to ascertain the cause of the recent fire outbreak which gutted the new central market in Birnin-Kebbi, the state capital.

The committee comprises of commissioners, eminent politicians, civil servants, traditional rulers, business communities, security agents, fire-service and market officials

The committee has been empowered to recommend how best to re-open the market for commercial activities.

A statement signed by Abubakar Mu’azu Dakingari, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Abubakar Bagudu said the governor
announced this after inspecting the market when he visited to sympathise with the traders.

Gov. Bagudu directed members of the committee to chart possible ways to assist the affected persons and immediate relocation of traders to a temporary site.

The governor said the state government would provide relief measures to all the victims to cushion the losses incurred from the inferno. He advised the traders to take solace in Allah as a pre-destined divine act.

Read also: Benue kicks against grazing area for Fulani herdsmen

Earlier, the commissioner of Lands and Housing, Alhaji Abubakar Chika Ladan (AC) told the governor that two thousand one hundred and seventy (2,170) temporary stalls and three hundred and twenty four permanent shops (324) were burnt based on an interim report.

He said the fire started as a result of suspected gas explosion in one of the shops because there was no electricity in the market.

Property worth hundreds of millions of naira were lost as a result of the outbreak which started at midnight Friday and raged for several hours into the next day.

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