The management of 4U Supermarket Limited (former Amigo supermarket), a popular shopping mall in Abuja, on Friday dismissed reports that fire gutted its Wuse 2 building on Tuesday.
Mr Yunusa Yusuf, 4U Supermarket General Manager, during a courtesy call on the Editor-in-Chief (EIC), of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Malam Ibrahim Mammaga, said that the outfit was not affected by the inferno that hit some buildings on the said date.
“The reported fire incident occurred about five buildings away from the Supermarket. The incident happened on Tuesday, July 9, at about 1:30 p.m.
“The fire incident was indeed unfortunate, but we want to state that the property of the supermarket was not in any way affected,” he said.
Yusuf said that media reports claiming that the supermarket was among structures hit by the inferno were false, urging members of the public to ignore the rumour.
Responding, the NAN EIC thanked the general manager for the visit and assured him of the news agency’s readiness to support and promote the supermarket’s activities.
Mammaga regretted the misrepresentation of facts by the media, and blamed that on inaccurate information obtained from some government agencies.
“Newsmen usually rely on competent authorities for credible information relating to happenings, but the sources quoted in the fire incident report proved unreliable
“We thank your organisation for visiting us and stating the true position; we wish to let you know that we value this understanding and shall be happy to establish closer working ties with your outfit,” he said.
Reports quoting Mr Jerry Timvh, Public Relations Officer, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Fire Service, had indicated that a fire incident in Wuse 2 affected ‘Amingo Supermarket’, now known as 4U Supermarket Limited, Abuja.
Timvh had claimed that the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, but added that the service was able to control it.