By Onuminya Innocent
President Muhammadu Buhari has promised that the federal government will assist the Sokoto State Government in rebuilding the Sokoto Central Market gutted by fire last week.
Speaking at the Sokoto Government House Monday, the Chief of Staff to the president, Prof. Abdullahi Gambari, who led a federal government delegation to the state, said the president sent them to commiserate with the people and state government over the destruction of shops and properties worth billion of naira in the inferno.
Gambari said President Buhari was touched when he heard the unfortunate news of the fire outbreak.
According to him, the president should have been in Sokoto in person but couldn’t make it due to official engagement, hence he mandated them to come and commiserate with the good people of the state.
Responding, Governor Aminu Tambuwal thanked President Buhari for not abandoning them at this trying moment.
He told the delegation that the fire was caused by electrical faults from the transformer serving the market
The governor further disclosed that the market has 16,000 shops with 60 per cent of the shops razed by the inferno.
He pleaded with the federal government to assist the affected victims, as the inferno has affected their livelihood.
The delegation went into a close-door meeting with the governor and later paid a courtesy call on the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III.
Those who accompanied Prof. Gambari on the visit included the former Governor of Sokoto State, Sentor Aliyu Magartaka Wamakko; Minister of Social Development, Disaster and Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar Farouq; her counterparts from Police Affairs, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi; and Communication and Digital Economy, Ali Isa Pantami.
