Next Cash & Carry Breaks Silence On Fire Disaster, Demands Investigation

…….2000 persons to loose job.

Oru Leonard

The management of Next Cash and Carry has broken its silence over the fire incident which occurred on the Sunday, December 26 (Boxing Day), at the ultra modern shopping mall in the Jahi District of Abuja, calling for an extensive investigation into the matter.

General Manager of the mall, Mr Neil Pape, in a statement said the fire started at about 10.45 am on Sunday, noting that the shop closed for Christmas holiday on 24th December 2021 in order to allow its staff and customers to celebrate the Christmas holiday.

Part of the statement reads; “The Shop was scheduled to open on the 26th December 2021 being boxing day at 12 PM. It is important to state that the cleaners, cashiers, security & bakery staff came into the shop in the early hours of 26th December 2021 to clean and get all the facets of the store ready for operations at 12pm. The cleaners had barely finished cleaning the store, when the fire started from one of the departments in the store. The staff immediately alerted the fire fighters, as well as security operatives.

“They all assisted in no small measure to reduce the extent of the damage caused by the fire,”

Analysis from a media source has it that the fire incident will push up unemployment to additional 2000.