…Consoles Victims; Sets Up Assessment Committee
…Calls For Calm; Cautions Against Politicising Incident; To Meet PMB
By Ndahi Marama, Maiduguri
Following an outbreak of a major fire incident, which has largely raised down the Maiduguri Monday Market on Sunday around 2am, the governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, has, in a quick statewide broadcast, announced an emergency relief of N1 billion to provide urgent support to victims of the inferno, pending assessment of the incident.
The spokesperson to Governor Zulum, Malam Isa Gusau, in a statement, said that Zulum made a broadcast soon after he had visited the scene of the incident and had mobilized the armed forces to secure the area to prevent breakdown of law and order.
Below is a text of Zulum’s speech, which he made in Kanuri and Hausa languages:
“My fellow people of Borno State, we woke up today with a very sad and unfortunate fire disaster at the Maiduguri Monday market. This is very unfortunate, but we believe that this is decreed by Allah. Inna lillahi Wa inna ilayhi raajiun.
“I feel deeply pained by this incident and I know how painful it is for anyone to work hard over the years to build his or her business, but end up losing that investment in seconds.
“I really feel the pains of everyone affected by this incident. I commiserate with all of you. I kindly and most respectfully urge you to be calm and patient. I know how bad you feel and insha’Allah, the Borno State government is already taking the following measures to ameliorate the situation:
“1. I have approved the release of N1 billion as emergency relief for us to quickly support victims of the disaster, because we know that some of them may even have difficulty of surviving the next few days. Many rely on daily businesses in order to cater for themselves.
“2. We are setting up an assessment committee that will comprise respectable individuals from our society, including representatives of the victims, for us to speedily assess damages, and take comprehensive list of those affected and their loses. I will also be holding meeting with leadership of the market and representatives of the victims.
“3. I am going to see Mr President and seek for presidential intervention on how to get support for victims.
“4. We will also reach out to other humanitarian establishments to seek help.
“5. Insha’Allah, we will be taking firm measures towards preventing reoccurrence of this fire disaster that has occurred in previous years.
“I will like to respectfully appeal to everyone for calm. I know how you feel. I feel your pain and we will support you through whatever means we can, insha’Allah.
“In the meantime, I urge us not to politicize this unfortunate incident. I recognize that the incident is happening at a political time, but we all know that the Monday market has unfortunately faced fire disaster in previous times and this is sad. We have to find ways of ensuring this unfortunate fire disaster does not happen again and we will work together to ensure this, biiznillah.”
