Goods worth millions of naira were destroyed by a fire, which gutted the Baboko Market in Illorin, the Kwara State capital just after midnight on Sunday.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that 20 shops were completely razed by the inferno which lasted several hours.

The agency gathered that some shop owners left huge sums of money in their shops when the incident occurred.

Sources said that the inferno was triggered by a spark from an electric cable in one of the shops when electricity was restored.

Some night guards at the market were said to have noticed smoke billowing from one of the affected shops and drew the attention of leadership of the market to it.

They alerted fire fighters who came to the scene and prevented the fire from spreading to other shops.

The Chairman of Ilorin West Local Government Council, Alhaji Tajudeen Zulu-Oloje, visited the scene of the incident on Sunday.

He said that he received a distress call from one of the market officials around 2am on the fire outbreak.

He said the local council would do its best to reconstruct the burnt shops and assist affected traders.

Zulu-Oloje commended men of the state fire service for the quick response.

Efforts to speak to the Special Adviser on Emergency and Relief to State Governor Alhaji Duro Mohammed, on the incident proved futile.