By Francis Sardauna
The Chairman of the Administrative Committee inaugurated by the Katsina State Government to unravel the cause(s) of the mysterious fire that gutted the Katsina Central Market, Alhaji Tasi’u Dandagoro, has revealed that the inferno destroyed properties worth N902.1 million in the market.
Dandagoro, while submitting the committee’s report to Governor Aminu Bello Masari at the Government House Wednesday, said poor and rampant electricity connections were responsible for the inferno.
He explained that 685 traders were directly affected by the disaster, while 605 shops were destroyed and 59 traders that were on attachment were also affected by the fire incident.
He said: “And 21 number of traders were affected by looting. The total submission in terms of cost lost to this incident has been estimated to the total sum of N902,138,500 and this submission did not include the cost of the structure.
“The administrative committee based on its findings, has attributed poor and rampant connection of electricity cumbered with the materials sold that have violated the standard regulations in engineering to causes of this fire incident.”
Receiving the report, Governor Masari said the state civil servants and political appointees will contribute to assist the victims of the fire disaster.
According to the governor, the civil servants and political appointees consumed about 80 per cent of the state resources and there was need for them to contribute for the assistance of the affected traders.
He therefore announced that the state government would inaugurate a white paper committee to come up with a resolution on the report submitted by the committee.
