ONYEDI GABRIEL, Port Harcourt
Traders have counted their losses following a midnight fire that destroyed over 10 shops at T-junction area of Rumuagholu Town, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The fire, which reportedly started at about 2am, razed shops and goods worth millions of naira.
The inferno was caused by an electrical fault from one of the shops when the electricity company in the area restored power at about 2am.
The source, who spoke in confidence said: “The fire started immediately power was restored. So it is believed that it was as a result of an electrical fault in one of the shops.
“The fire started at midnight so there was no way to get through to the shop owners to come and remove their property.
“We could not rescue anything. Even the fire service we called came, but before they got here the havoc had already been done”.
One of the traders, who sold bags of rice and other cereals said he lost over N3.5 million in the incident lamenting that he could not salvage anything.
“A day before this incident, I received new supplies from my customers. We offloaded the goods but all of them perished in this fire. I have lost everything and I am calling on the government to come to my rescue”, he said.