N100bn Singer Market Inferno: Senate Orders Probe, Seeks Nationwide Safety Audit

• Directs NEMA to assess damage, search for seven missing traders 

•Urges market redesign as Tinubu, governors pledge N8bn support 

•Calls for soft loans to help over 1,000 affected businesses rebuild

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Senate on Tuesday ordered a comprehensive investigation into the devastating fire outbreak at Singer Market in Kano State, where goods and property valued at over N100 billion were destroyed, affecting more than 1,000 businesses.

The upper chamber mandated its Committee on Interior to probe both the immediate and remote causes of the inferno and submit its findings within four weeks, amid concerns over recurring fire incidents in major markets across the country.

The resolutions followed the adoption of a motion moved by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau I. Jibrin, and co-sponsored by Senators Kawu Samaila and Rufai Hangar during plenary.

Leading debate on the motion, Jibrin described the scale of destruction as monumental, noting that the blaze had crippled mostly small and medium-scale enterprises that constitute the backbone of regional commerce in Kano and neighbouring states.

He disclosed that preliminary reports indicated losses exceeding N100 billion, while seven traders were still unaccounted for as of the time of deliberation.

According to him, the market, a critical commercial hub in northern Nigeria, suffered extensive damage partly due to delayed emergency response, raising questions about preparedness and safety compliance.

“Many of the traders do not have insurance coverage, thereby compounding their problem,” he lamented, stressing that the economic shock would reverberate beyond Kano.

Disturbed by the magnitude of the tragedy, the Senate directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to urgently assess the full extent of the destruction and provide immediate relief materials to affected traders.

The agency was further tasked with conducting search and rescue operations to locate the seven traders reportedly missing since the incident.

In addition, lawmakers called on the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development to design a soft loan scheme to enable victims rebuild their businesses and restore economic activities in the market.

The Senate also mandated the Federal Fire Service to undertake a nationwide audit of safety compliance in major markets, in what appeared to be a broader attempt to forestall similar disasters across the country.

While commending President Bola Tinubu for approving a N5 billion donation to support victims of the inferno, the chamber also acknowledged the N3 billion intervention announced by the Progressive Governors’ Forum.

Lawmakers said the combined N8 billion support demonstrated national solidarity but stressed that immediate structural reforms were required to prevent a recurrence.

Beyond financial intervention, the Senate urged the management of Singer Market to embark on a comprehensive redesign of its layout and structures to reduce vulnerability to future fire outbreaks.

Contributing to the debate, Senator Aliyu Wadada insisted that the Senate must go beyond expressions of sympathy and identify the root causes of the incident.

“What is the root of all this? Where is it coming from?” he queried, recalling that the same market had reportedly experienced a fire outbreak just weeks earlier.

“Because this particular market was ablaze two to three weeks before now, we need to know what is the matter. We need to get to the root of this; otherwise, God forbid, it will be an experience we will continue to experience,” he warned.

The recurrence of market fires in different parts of the country has often been attributed to poor electrical wiring, storage of inflammable materials, and weak enforcement of safety standards.

Tuesday’s debate reflected growing frustration within the National Assembly over what lawmakers described as a pattern of preventable disasters.

In his remarks, Senate President Godswill Akpabio appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to rally round the affected traders.

“We pray also that the next design of the market will help us avert this kind of issue happening again in the future,” he said.

The Senate’s intervention signals a shift from reactive sympathy to proactive oversight, as lawmakers seek to address systemic lapses in emergency response and market safety management.

For the traders of Singer Market, many of who lost life savings and sources of livelihood, the coming weeks will test the effectiveness of government promises and the speed of institutional response.

As investigations commence and relief efforts scale up, the focus now turns to whether the tragedy will mark a turning point in market safety enforcement nationwide or become another grim episode in Nigeria’s long history of commercial fire disasters.