Electricity supply was restored to Kugbo on Friday. Moments later, a trader says, the market began to burn.
Mary Aniekan was in her shop when it happened. She told Vanguard the Kugbo Furniture Market fire started after a spark was noticed, and that it began when the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) restored power.
Traders and onlookers raised the alarm and tried to beat back the flames. They could not. “Firefighters came but their water finished,” Aniekan said.
No deaths have been reported. Vanguard says the goods lost are worth millions of naira. No official figure exists yet, and emergency authorities have not confirmed the cause of the Kugbo Furniture Market fire.
Aniekan’s account is one eyewitness account and remains unverified. But it lands on very familiar ground.
This is not the first Kugbo Furniture Market fire of 2026. In January, the Federal Fire Service said it contained a major blaze there after more than three hours of firefighting. It said the fire was suspected to have been caused by an electrical surge.
The service said it saved property worth ₦1.8 billion in a market it valued at over ₦2 billion. Its Controller-General, Olumode Samuel Adeyemi, urged people to raise the alarm early.
February brought another blaze. The News Agency of Nigeria reported that more than 15 shops and some homes next to the market were destroyed. Mike Omo-youzou, who chairs the affected traders, said a fire engine and a driver were at the Kugbo station, but the crew waited for authorisation. He put his own loss at ₦5.2 million.
We found no public response to that allegation. He also suggested the fire may have started from cooking by youths sleeping in a shop.
The pattern predates 2026. After the 2021 Kugbo Furniture Market fire, FCT Minister of State Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu toured the site and said, “We will look forward to the reorganisation of the market.”
Vanguard reported that the acting FCT Fire Service director at the time, Sani Sa’idu, linked that blaze to an electrical surge and put the damage at over 80 timber sheds and 300 furniture shops.
Five years on, the same worries keep returning. Community leader Sunday Ejekam told the News Agency of Nigeria that inadequate spacing between buildings worsened the February Kugbo Furniture Market fire.
Electrical faults are the wider story too. The Federal Fire Service’s 2021 incident statistics listed electrical sparks as the leading cause of fires, at 636 incidents.
Several questions remain about the Kugbo Furniture Market fire. Was it an electrical fault, as Aniekan suggests? How many shops are gone? And if her account holds, why did the water run short?
At the time of writing, we had found no statement from the Federal Fire Service or AEDC.
The January advice was to call early. By Aniekan’s account, the call came at once. What ran short was water.
Kugbo has had a minister’s visit, a promise of reorganisation and warnings to call for help early. On Friday, one trader says, help came and the water ran out.
