Some traders at the popular Balogun market in Lagos state are currently counting their losses after fire gutted a section of the market in the early hours of today, December 16.
The fire incident, which started at midnight, occurred nine days before Christmas.
Many of the traders lamented that they had stocked millions of goods for end-of-year sales before the fire incident occurred.
According to The PUNCH, many traders selling clothes and bags were most hit and the cause of the fire is unknown at the time of filing this report.
One of the affected traders, identified simply as Iya Akande, broke down in tears while narrating the incident.
She lamented that some of them took loans to purchase goods ahead of Christmas and the New Year.
Akande stated;
I just came to the market to open my shop and saw many traders crying. I looked up and saw that our goods have been gutted by fire. We are in trouble. Many of us took loans to get goods so that we can make much profit during this festive period.
Asked to estimate the amount of goods burnt, she said, “millions”.
More details to come.
