Midnight Fire Razes Oba Market in Benin-city

The famous Oba Market in Benin-city, capital of Edo State, was on Monday gutted by fire. The fire, which was said to have started in the midnight of yesterday, affected mostly the areas where wears are sold. The Oba Market fire is the forth in the series of markets in the city razed by fire. Other market like Spare Parts Market at Uwelu; Santana Market, Ekiosa Market and now the Oba Market have experienced such ugly incident. This is coming three days after the sellers relocated to the market due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to media report, the fire which began at about 12 midnight raged till about 6 a.m. before fire service from the state and Asaba, Delta State, in conjunction with the NPDC and Nigeria Air Force fire services brought the situation under control. Recounting their losses, one of the traders who sells clothes in the market, Edith Amayo, said she couldn't salvage any of her wares as her shop was completely burnt down. She said: "They called me around 1a.m. today that Oba Market was on fire, on reaching here, we could not find any of our goods.” She, therefore, appealed to the government and well-meaning Nigerians to provide assistance for them. Another trader who deals on cosmetics, who, simply identified herself as Habib, said she lost her goods worth millions of naira. According to her, “Immediately they opened the market last week, I decided to stock my shop. Sadly, I have lost my only means of livelihood. "The fire consumed all my wares. I do not have anything in my store as all my commodities burnt." As at the time of filing this report, the state government was yet to react to the fire incident.