Fire, yesterday razed over 150 shops, with property worth millions of Naira destroyed at Kpirikpiri Market, in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
The fire , which razed the market said to be the second largest in the state, after Abakpa Main Market, started at 2:00 pm when people were returning from church.
Commissioner for Internal Security and Border Peace, Mr. Stanley Okoro Emegha and Special Assistant to the governor on Internal Security (South) Mr. Chika Nwangel who visited the scene, described the incident as disastrous.
Emegha lamented that the Fire Service was informed about the incident very late.
He traced the inferno to a nearby bush burning around the market which lost control and spread to the market.
The commissioner acknowledged the swift intervention of Neighborhood Watch, an internal security outfit and youths in the area, which helped to stop the fire from razing the whole market
