Akwa Ibom In Shock As Mystery Fire Guts Uyo Market

A mysterious fire on the night of Tuesday May 17 gutted some shops in Itam market, Uyo Akwa Ibom State destroying goods worth millions of Naira.

The cause of the inferno was not known as Market leaders explained on Wednesday that there were no electrical connections in the whole of the  area affected.

However, about eight lock up shops were affected and two out of these were razed down with goods inside before the arrival of operatives of the Fire Service.

It was gathered that the fire incident which occurred about 9pm could not escalate to the entire market following the efforts of the youths of the area who mobilized themselves to break some shops and evacuate some goods before the fire was put out.

One of the victims who simply identified himself as Mr John who deals on stationeries narrated how he lost everything to the fire and did not know the next line of action

He said, “I left the market around 7pm and by some minutes past nine, one of the security men called me that my shop has burnt down. I rushed down to this place immediately, I was devastated when I saw everything in my shop gone down.

“Fire service people were here when I came but I couldn’t remove even a pin from the shop. Honestly I don’t know where to start from.”

Another victim, Aniekpeno Akra told journalists that he got a similar call from people but on arrival he discovered that the havoc has already been done.

GWGNG correspondent reports that heaps of burnt grains, tins of tomatoes, heaps of books and other metals were seen at the scene of the incident.

The chairman,  board of trustees, Traders Forum Association, Elder Godwin Ebong in an interview expressed dismay over the incident adding that the union has commenced investigation into the matter.

He said preliminary investigations have not revealed the cause of the inferno  as no electrical wiring is connected in the shops.

According to him, “till now, we cannot ascertain the cause of the fire outbreak, we have conducted our internal investigation and have not discovered the source, we are still hoping that few days from now, we will find out what happened.

Ebong noted that as soon they got wind of the inferno, the union contacted men of fire service who came within 45 minutes to put out the fire.

Ebong who pleaded support for the affected members said the union has reached out to both the local and state governments even as he thanked God that no life was lost.

 Also the Special Assistant to Governor Emmanuel on Trade and Investment, Mr Idorenyin Raphael when contacted confirmed the fire incident at the Uyo market saying that he immediately called the commissioner for works and fire service who in turn ordered his men to the scene.

“Yes it’s true, the incident happened yesterday and I called the fire service personnel, within 20minutes they were on ground to arrest the situation.”

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