A Fire outbreak in GSM village in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital has razed down 35 shops, leaving tales of woes on its trails.
The ugly incident, has left tales of lamentations become the companion of the victims of the market inferno, as many of them felt they have come to a dead end of life, considering its impact on the means of their livelihood.
“Our members have lost over N500m to the inferno that razed down 35 shops completely as it lasted. Many of them are back to square one ,with huge debt staring them in the face .“Many of the victims invested their life savings and many others borrowed money from banks, cooperatives, friends or relatives to establish their businesses.
“Some traders just restocked their shops with new wares/ materials ; all have been lost to the unexpected fire outbreak”, the secretary of the Kpata- Lokoja GSM Village Union, Miracle Elom, said.
The affected GSM village that is located between the popular Paparanda roundabout and Lokoja- kpata market along the IBB main driveway to Nataco end of the capital city shared the same fence with a fuel filling station at one side and residential buildings at other sides. While several traders who lost their shops to the sudden inferno were seen picking their pieces.However, other traders, who escaped the inferno were seen consoling with the victims.
Residents of the area confirmed noticing ray of light around 2.00am around the area but did not know initially until the blazing fire expanded and became noticeable in the community. “The night was fraught with intermittent power outages by the energy providers. It was an off and on situation till around 3am when it went off permanently. I was alerted to the incident only when my neighbour raised an alarm over the burning of his shop.
