President Jonathan announces N250m compensation package for victims of Sokoto Market ember disaster

President Goodluck Jonathan has announced a compensation package of N250 million to victims of the blaze disaster that affected the well-liked Kara market in Sokoto State recently.

He disclosed the donation upon Saturday when he visited the burnt market immediately after attending the grand reception and rally to mark the formal defection of immediate past.


governor of Sotoko State, Alhaji Attahiru Bawara from the All Progressive Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Jonathan, who was led to the market by the deputy governor of the state, Alhaji Mukhtar Shagari, identified with traders at the market, saying, What has happened to you, happened to us.

This blaze incidence has destroyed all what you have. Some of you, these are the only things you have. Some of you even borrowed money to buy those things, he added, even as he sympathised with the blaze victims, who trooped out in their numbers to receive the president.

President Jonathan said, So, as for me, the party chairman, the senate President, our PDP leaders, the Vice President, your own the deputy governor Murktar Shagari, we said we should all arrive and sympathise with you.

We are telling you that what has happened to you has happened to us. Take it kindly, as we go back to Abuja we will see the tiny we will send to help you rebuild the place. Allah will continue to bless you.
The Kara market flare was said to have started at about midnight upon 4th February this year as a result of an electrical spark at a shop opposite the Kofar-Kade gate, destroying property estimated at hundreds of millions of naira.

There was, however, no loss of life or injury in the inferno.

Officials of the state government are expected to liaise with the federal government in effectively putting the funds to judicious use in order to assist traders that have recorded loses from the fire incidence.