In this piece, our correspondent, ABBA – EKU ONYEKACHI reports that contrary to the economic policy of Renewed Hope Agenda of the present government, the regular fire outbreak in Karmo Daily Market, located in Karimo, one of the communities in Abuja the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has over the time been resulting in the loss of billions of Naira by the traders, among which the most affected, according to reports are Igbo traders.

When the mother of the late Chief Suleiman Aduge, the Villagehead of Karmo Community started selling her farm produce under a tree in the place where the present day Karmo market is situated, little did she know that the place would be a means of livelihood to many, which will be facing destruction by regular fire outbreak, to the detriment of the traders, who usually take risk to rebuild it.

If what the late Villagehead said is something to go by, his mother was the first person to start the transaction after a farmwork under a tree and others joined her and that place developed to be the popular Karmo market that has suffered and survived gigantic conflagration regularly. That transaction started many years back, before location of Nigeria’s capital to this area called Abuja, the FCT.

This market which later grew beyond imagination became a Tuesday market, and later a daily market. It is one of the markets, if not the largest, where you can buy food stuff at affordable price. The market whose shops were originally built with solid block cement by the military government was demolished in the Year 2006 by the civilian government, and as a result of that, the traders who had no other alternatives resorted to reconstructing it, by putting up shanties with zincs, to continue to fend for their families.

Since its reconstruction, the market has been destroyed by severally by unquenchable fire outbreak, making the traders losing all their billions of Naira worth goods. Although some areas were spared, but majority of those spoken to by our correspondent said that the most affected, whenever the inferno occurs are the Igbo traders located areaa, with the reason that the fire outbreak regularly occurs at the centre of the market, where the Igbo traders have their shops and goods.

Although the current chairman of the traders refused to speak when approached we, but the immediate past chairman, Makata Sylvanus when contacted said that, apart from minor fire outbreaks, the market has majorly been gutted by inferno on 1st day of December, 2017; 7th day of July, 2021; 31st day of March, 2022 and the immediate one that happened on Wednesday, the 17th of January, 2024. Makata however informed that he gathered that the market would soon be solidly rebuilt to its former standard in line with the court judgement in 2018, as the traders took the government to court against demolishing the market 

However, a trader, Kingsley Mba when spoken to said: “I came to Abuja since 1989; served in this market for six years, and started on my own in this market. We started experiencing fire incident in this market right from 2017. I don’t know the causes of these regular fire outbreaks, because after demolishing this market by the authority in 2006, this is the fourth time fire out break occured from a particular container in this market and destroyed our goods. 

“After the demolition, we sued and won the government in 2018 and since then, we have been begging the government to obey the court and rebuild the market to its former standard, which if done, will reduce the fire outbreaks. Personally, I lost about N12 million to this inferno, because I just came back on 11th from my father’s burial. I used all the money I made during the festive period to buy goods and they have now been destroyed by fire.

“During one of the fire outbreaks, NEMA gave us some small bags of rice and corns, without financial assistance. The traders mostly affected are the Igbo, because, the unaffected areas are occupied by Hausa traders. In fact, it is the Igbo that suffers itnall the time.”

The Market Traders’ Patron, Felix Eze, when spoken to had this to say: “The fire outbreak didn’t affect my shed, but it affected my wife’s shed and goods there – in. As we were bringing out our goods, looters were busy carting away with them. I wouldn’t know the cause of the inferno, but the people who suffered from it were the Igbo traders. It didn’t get to the place where the Hausa traders are. We have suffered from an inferno of this nature for the fourth time now.”

Eze therefore informed that they were working with the indigenes to find out the causes of the inferno, adding that the fire outbreak happens in a particular area, where the Igbo traders have their shops, disclosing: “It starts from a particular container, whose owner I don’t.”

According to Zikirula Abubakar,

the Market Traders’ Assistant Secretary: “I don’t know the causes of the regular fire incident, and the shop where the fire incident started, there is no light there-in, and secondly, what is sold in the shop are things like alcoholic drinks. All efforts made by the security agents to quench the fire which started around 12:30 am on Wednesday proved abortive. This inferno took place in this market in 2017, 2018, 2022/2023 and this 2024.

“At its demolition, we took government to court and won, but up till now, the government is yet to obey the court rulings of rebuilding the market. We are working with the indigenes to develop the market and we have good relationship with them. The fire affected all the seven tribes in the market; not Igbo traders alone and the damages we had here were more than N20 billion. 

The Village Head of Karmo Sabo, Chief Umar Gani Sarkin Karmo, when interviewed believed that, it is only God that knows the regular causes of the incident, stating that anything that God decrees to happen, no human being will stop.

“We are investigating why this thing has been happening. We pray God to touch the government to come to our aid and rebuild the market, as well as assist the traders, because many of them buy on credit and others, borrow money for their businesses. Let the government please intervene, to enable them start all over again,” he pleaded.

When spoken to, the Igbo paramount ruler in Karmo, HRH John Osai said: “I am not happy that this market is being gutted by fire everytime and my people’s goods worth billions of Naira damaged.  When this started around 1am, I couldn’t sleep again, knowing fully well that it will affect my people. Let this be the first and last of inferno in this market, because if this happens again, I shall not take it lightly and they will know that I am from Enugu – Ezike, Enugu state. I know those affected, because they are Igbo traders.”

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