Fire destroys 17 shops, goods in Rivers

Goods and property worth millions of naira were destroyed in an early morning fire in Romaholu community, in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State on Monday.

Witnesses said the fire started around 3 am when thick smoke was seen billowing into the atmosphere, adding that over 17 shops were burnt.

Some of the affected traders, who spoke to our correspondent, said they received telephone calls informing them of the incident, adding that they did not recover anything from their shops.

“This shop you are seeing now is mine. Early this morning, my brother called me to say that there was a fire at my shop. Before I got here, everything was gone.

“All the shoes, bags, slippers that I sell here, everything got burnt. I don’t know where to start from now,” one of them stated.

A female trader who was in tears said, “I sell shoes. This morning, they called to me that my shop got burnt. When I came here, everything was in ashes.

“In this time of hardship this kind of thing is happening; where am I going to start from now? I want the government to help us because we don’t have any hope again.”

Another victim, Elekwashi Sunday, said he lost about N3.5m to the fire.

“I deal in garri, rice, beans and other foodstuffs. What I have lost here is close to N3.5m because they just offloaded goods for me yesterday (Sunday). It is only God that knows the kind of pain that I am going through now,” he added.