A fire outbreak in the early hours of Tuesday razed down over fourteen shops with properties worth millions of Naira along Atom Kpera Road, High Level Makurdi.
Our correspondent who visited the scene reports that shop owners were in tears for their loss as a large crowd of people had visited the scene to sympathise with affected shop owners and also to catch a glimpse of the ravage caused by the inferno.
Speaking to our correspondent, a shop owner who sells decoration and wedding items, Mrs. Chinwe Eke, in tears said she wonders where to start from since her only source of survival has been destroyed by fire, as according to her she had just returned with new items preparatory to the festive period.
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Godfrey Oshio, who lost bags of chicken feeds and veterinary drugs to the inferno and sat brooding over the situation, said he has lost properties worth over one hundred million naira.
Another shop owner, Mathew Okoro, said he got the call at about One a.m. and before he could get to the scene, his shop had already been engulfed by the fire and he could not salvage any items from his shop.
Okoro appealed to the State Government to come to their aid to alleviate their plight to enable them start business all over again.
A customer of one of the computer shops and a student in the Department of Political Science, Benue State University, Makurdi, Obasi Ngwuoke, expressed his grief over his loss of his final year research project work in one of the computers in the affected shops.
He also wondered why the same incident is happening almost a year after in the same fashion.
Reacting, Deputy Superintendent of Fire and Head Special Duties, Federal Fire Service, Zone A, Makurdi, Benue State, Umagba Abah, said the incident of the fire outbreak came to them late and before they could arrive the scene, the damage had already been done and they could do nothing to salvage the situation.
He advised the public to instead of making videos of fire incidents, call the fire service emergency number for quick intervention.
