President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan visited the Central market in Nguru, Yobe State to sympathize with the victims of the market inferno which occurred last Saturday.
Lawan arrived at Nguru in the afternoon of Thursday, paid homage to the Emir of Nguru and later proceeded to the main market to see for himself what happened.
The Senate President later donated the sum of N10 million towards rebuilding the market and appealed to other people in the community to make similar contributions to ease the sufferings of those affected by the fire incident.
In a statement by the Special Adviser (Media) to the Senate President, Mr Ola Awoniyi, he said Lawan also witnessed the flag-off of relief materials to the victims by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Speaking shortly before the distribution of the relief materials, Lawan prayed against a recurrence of such an incident.
He said: “Incidents like this happen because they are destined to happen. But like some said, there are causes and sources of such accidents. We need to look at why the fire outbreak is happening almost on a yearly basis in our market here.
“Nguru Central Market is a very important market to us in Yobe State and in the Northeast. We have so many people who benefit from this market directly and indirectly.
“So we are supposed to do everything and anything possible within our limit to support our people who have lost so much in their businesses to the fire accident.
“When I learnt about the fire incident, I immediately placed a call to the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development to inform her of this development and of course, she sent NEMA Northeast to come and see what has happened here.
“NEMA has brought some relief materials for our people. But because this is relief material, this is simply to cushion the immediate impact of that accident.
“I want to commend the Chairman of Nguru Local Government Council for assuring us that all those that are affected will benefit from the relief materials appropriately.”
The Minister of Humanitarian Affair and Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq said in a speech read on her behalf by her Director of Humanitarian Affairs, Grema Ali Alhaji that it was a sad incident “because of the extent of damage caused and losses to livelihoods of many persons.”
She said the relief materials brought were based on the damage assessment and need analysis conducted by NEMA.
The Minister said the North East Development Commission (NEDC) had been directed to assess the situation for further assistance to the victims.