GOVERNOR Babagana Zulum of Borno State on Friday ordered an investigation into Thursday night’s fire at the Maiduguri GSM Market.
To conduct the probe are the Chief of Staff, Government House, Mr Babagana Wakil and five commissioners.
They are to assess the incident and submit their report within 24 hours, according to the governor’s Special Adviser on Public Relations and Strategy, Mr. Isa Gusau.
The commissioners are those of commerce, home affairs, poverty alleviation and jobs creation.
The panel was asked to “assess damage, interact with respondents, victims and other relevant persons in order to generate immediate report required by the governor.”
Gusau said the governor “shared the pains of those whose means of livelihood and assets were torched.”
Dozens of shops and property worth millions of Naira were destroyed in the inferno which started at about 8:00 pm and lasted for several hours before it was extinguished by the fire servicemen, security personnel and members of the community.
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The market popularly called “Kasuwar Jagol,” is located at Post Office area of the metropolis, providing business spaces to thousands of traders and artisans in the area.
Mr Ambursa Pindar, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Borno Fire Service who confirmed the incident, said that the service deployed five fire-fighting vehicles to the scene of the fire.
Pindar said that the service would conduct assessment to ascertain the extent of damage.
An eye witness, Mr Abdulrahman Tahir, said the fire started at one of the shops and engulfed other shops in the market.
Tahir, a cell phone vendor, lamented that a number of traders lost their goods to the fire.
He, however, said that he successfully retrieved his goods by the rapid response of the fire service men and security personnel who put out the fire.
Armed security personnel were deployed to the market to guard against looting by hoodlums.
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