FIRE GUTS BENUE RICE MILL MARKET, DESTROYING PROPERTY WORTH MILLIONS

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The well-known rice mill market in Wurukum, close to the River Benue bridge in Makurdi, has seen properties valued at millions of naira damaged by a fire outbreak.

Early Monday morning saw the start of the fire.

After their prompt arrival, firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading to adjacent stores.

Many stores were impacted, nevertheless, as milling machines, processed and uncooked rice, and other items were entirely destroyed by fire.

One of the victims, Mercy Hanmaikyur, said she opened her shop in December and lost about N10 million in the fire.

“I opened this shop last December after investing about N10 million. I had three machines—a de-stoning machine, a rice polishing machine—and many bags of processed and unprocessed rice. Everything was burnt,” she said.

Iorwa Jeremiah, another victim, too experienced his loss. He said that nothing could be saved from his shop at the time of the fire.

“I got a call in the early hours of today. By the time I arrived, I saw other shop owners with firefighters who were trying to put out the fire. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done,” Jeremiah said.

A few stores, a motorcycle, around six milling machines, and numerous bags of rice were all burned, according to Terva Igyar, the chairman of the Wurukum rice mill market.

After speaking with Makurdi Local Government representatives and other interested parties, Igyar said, they agreed to come to the market and inspect the damage before calculating the whole loss.

Since their stores were not connected to any power source, the traders ruled out electricity as the cause of the fire.

In order to help them cope with the loss, the victims have made a request to Governor Hyacinth Alia.