Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has promised to support NEXT Cash and Carry Supermarket, to ensure that it recovers stronger than it was before the Boxing Day fire incident that destroyed it.
Next Cash and Carry, one of Abuja’s biggest shopping malls, was gutted by fire on Sunday morning.
The Minister made the promise when he visited the scene of the fire disaster for an on-the-spot assessment of the giant shopping mall gutted by fire on Boxing Day.
He said the fire was something that rocked the city hard since it is a major investment that generates many jobs in the city.
Bello described the inferno as a terrible occurrence but thanked God that no life was lost, and a large portion of the premises where bulk commodities were housed in warehouses was saved.
According to him, “This particular incident brought out what is good about us as residents, everybody united and supported them.
“I really sympathise with NEXT, particularly because during the heat of the COVID-19, NEXT were among the foremost companies that provided tremendous support to the FCTA, by providing palliative items, which we distributed to vulnerable members of the community.
“Unfortunately, today they are also vulnerable, so it’s our duty in the city to rally round and protect this important investment that is a generator of many jobs in the city.
“We will give them all the needed support so that they bounce back stronger than what they were before. We look forward to seeing you back to business in the no distant future.”
He commended the managers and staff of NEXT Cash and Carry Supermarket for having and activating an internal firefighting mechanism in place, which greatly helped in curtailing the inferno.
While speaking on the update of investigations into the remote cause of the inferno, the Minister said: “The experts are checking to see what the causes are.”
Also, commenting on steps taken to prevent reoccurrence of fire outbreaks in the FCT, the minister opined that “the world over, whenever there is a fire incident, it affords city managers and relevant agencies opportunity to review existing code for built facilities, to make sure whenever fire incidences occur, the damages are minimal.
“With this fire incident, together with relevant agencies, we will look at what really happened, then as time goes on additional measures will be presented.
“The whole is that as buildings are designed and monitored, we will make sure that checks and balances are incorporated in such a way that fires are not allowed to go beyond and escape to where they become impossible to contain.”
