The popular Santana market along Sapele road in Benin City, the Edo state capital, was razed by fire on Saturday night.
According to eyewitnesses, the fire outbreak destroyed goods worth million of Naira as some of the shop owners watched helplessly.
The devastated shop owners said efforts to get the state fire service to salvage the situation were unsuccessful.
However, they were quick to praise the men of the fire service from Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, who contained the fire and prevented it from escalating to neighbouring houses.
They said the incident may have been caused by power surge that occurred in one of the shops in the market when power was restored on Saturday night.
