Niger govt disburses N38m to fire victims in Minna

Niger State Government has disbursed N38 million in compensation to 28 victims of fire disasters that occurred in Minna, last year.

The fire disaster was said to have occurred in February 2024 somewhere around Tunga Low cost Housing Estate area of Minna where some shops owners were said to have lost their wares estimated at several millions of naira, to a raging inferno that gutted their shops and a residential building in Maitumbi area of Minna.

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Though the immediate or remol cause of the fire incident was unknown immediately, but it was attributed to a power surge shortly after the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company ( AEDC) restored power to the community at mid- night, several hours after the shops owners had shut down their shops in the evening of the previous day after the close of work on the fateful day.

The shop owners who were devastated by their losses to the incident and had lost hope of recovering from their losses, however, expressed their happiness for the support of the State Governor, Rt. Hon. Mohammed Umaru Bago’s compassion to the victims of fire disaster and their landlord, Alhaji Mahmood Mohammed over the cash palliative to the tune of N36,688,118.00

The Director General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), Hon. Abdullahi Baba Arah, disclosed the cash palliative while presenting Cheques to the victims of the inferno at the NSEMA Conference hall at the agency’s headquarters on Ebiyu Ukiwe Street, Minna GRA last Thursday, 3rd July 2025.

Baba Arah further explained that it might not be convenient for the government to give palliative for what was lost by each victim, revealing that each shop owner, including the landlord, was given 20 percent of the total value lost during the incident.

The NSEMA boss, while extending the state government’s sympathy to the victims, reminded them of the need to always abide by safety regulations to prevent future reoccurrence.

The DG, said, that “the number of beneficiaries is 28 in numbers, including the landlord, at various locations in Minna, such as Tunga, Chanchaga, and Maitumbi, while urging them to accept the incident as the will of God.

He, however, enjoined the beneficiaries to use the money given to them by the state government judiciously to cushion the effects of the hardships on them, just as he also assured other victims who had lost their properties to either fire or flood disasters in the past in parts of the State of similar support by the State Governor personally very soon by extending the same cash palliatives to them.

Speaking on behalf of the victims, Alhaji Mahmud Muhammed and Mrs. Juliet Omade Wamzo appreciated Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago for his intervention and unwavering support to the victims, which has helped cushion the effects of the disaster.