By Adibe Emenyonu
The famous Oba Market in Benin City, capital of Edo State, was Monday morning gutted by fire. The fire, said to have started at midnight, affected mostly those selling wears.
The Oba Market fire is the fourth in the series of markets in Benin razed by fire.
First to experience such ugly incident was the Spare Parts Market at Uwelu, Santana Market, Ekiosa Market and now the Oba Market.
This is coming three days after the sellers relocated back to the market due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to information, the fire, which began at about 12 midnight, raged till about 6 am before the Fire Service from Asaba, Delta State in conjunction with the NPDC and Nigeria Air Force fire services brought the situation under control.
Recounting their losses, one of the traders who sells clothes, Edith Amayo, said she couldn’t salvage any of her wares as her shop was completely burnt.
She said: “They called me around 1am today that Oba market is on fire. Reaching here, we could not find any of our goods.”
She therefore appealed to the government and well-meaning Nigerians to provide assistance.
Another trader, who deals in cosmetics, who simply identified herself as Habib, said she has lost her goods worth millions of naira.
According to her, immediately they opened the market last week, I decided to go and stock my shop. Sadly, I have lost the only thing that I use to feed my family.
“The fire consumed all my wares. I do not have anything in my store and all commodities burnt,” she lamented.
As at the time of filing this report, the state government was yet to react to the fire incident.
