Businesswoman Loses N5m She Buried Underground In Lagos

There was a mild drama on Monday in the Daleko Market, Mushin, Lagos State, as journalists searched in vain for an unidentified trader who was said to have lost huge sums of money buried in her shop to the fire incident that razed the market on Sunday.

One of the traders, who spoke to Punch, said the businesswoman was in the habit of keeping her money in the underground, instead of a bank. The trader who pleaded anonymity said:

“The woman usually keeps money in her shop, and would use her goods to cover it. But we are not sure if the whole money was destroyed by the fire. The theory here is that those that arrived first at the market saw the money and stole it.”
While some said the money she lost was between N2m to N5m, others put it higher than that. But an attempt to speak with the woman was unsuccessful as she was said to have gone to Alausa with other market leaders.

No fewer than 120 shops were affected in the fire that started around 1:00am as a result of a power surge.

A rice seller, Alhaji Kazeem, said he lost over one hundred bags of rice to the fire. He said, “I am ruined; over 100 bags of rice were lost to this inferno.”
Lagos State has promised to come to the assistance of the business men and woman in the market.