Vice President Kashim Shettima will on Monday lead a Federal Government delegation to Kano, following the weekend fire disaster at Singa Market.
The delegation, according to a statement by Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, is mandated to convey the President’s condolences to traders who lost billions of naira in the inferno.
The fire, which started on Saturday evening and raged into Sunday morning, caused extensive damage to the market.
The inferno was the second to engulf the market within two weeks.
The delegation will also pledge, on behalf of the Federal Government, financial assistance to support victims and aid Kano State in facilitating the swift reopening of the market.
Members of the delegation include the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas; Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin; Kawu Ismaila; and Abubakar Kabir Bichi, Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations.
Also on the team are the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Dr Bernard Doro, and the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency, Mrs Zubaida Umar.
The statement indicated that Tinubu had earlier called Governor Abba Yusuf to express condolences to traders and residents of Kano State.
The President was said to have directed a comprehensive investigation into the recurrent market fires, the latest being the second in recent weeks.
According to a statement signed on Sunday by Onanuga, the President had reached out to Yusuf to obtain a situation report before issuing the directive.
The governor, earlier on Saturday, had urged the Federal Government to urgently provide modern firefighting equipment, including air support, following the second fire outbreak at the market in recent weeks.
He made the appeal during an assessment visit to the Gidan Gilas section of the market.
A statement by the governor’s spokesperson, Sanusi Dawakin-Tofa, quoted Yusuf as saying such intervention would strengthen the fire services’ capacity to respond effectively to emergencies in major commercial centres nationwide.
“Governor Yusuf called on the Federal Government to urgently intervene by providing modern firefighting equipment, including air support and other essential tools, to help contain the fire and prevent future occurrences.
“This intervention will go a long way in enhancing the operational capacity of our fire services and minimising the scale of destruction recorded during such unfortunate incidents,” the statement read.
The governor urged traders and residents to remain calm and cooperate with emergency responders as efforts continued to bring the situation under control.
“We appeal to traders and residents to remain calm and support the emergency teams as they work tirelessly to extinguish the fire and safeguard lives and property,” he added.
Yusuf, during the visit, donated N100m to affected traders.
The PUNCH