A late night Christmas eve inferno has destroyed properties worth millions of naira in a block of four shops at 22 Sofoluwe street opposite St-Barnabas Church, off Murtala road in Ilorin Metropolis.

The incident, which occurred on the eve of Christmas at about 1;30am to 2am in the night,

Narrating their ordeal to journalists, one of the victims of the incident who spoke on behalf of other affected shop owners, Mrs Felicia Ige, said they had lost their means of livelihood as all their wares had been consumed by the fire.

She said the cause of the fire could was not immediately ascertained as no one could tell how fire got to the shops.

She said all they had, including their bank savings, had been consumed by the fire as they had already gone to the market a day before the incident to re-stock their shop in anticipation of Christmas sales.

Ige said all the four shops were burnt down by fire particularly the provision shop which contained food stuffs and other varieties of stocks, saying that Alhaja and Kolak Ventures were also affected.

"My brother, see how fire incident has reduce us to, we only come to the shop and sit at the opposite direction looking at the burnt shop with nothing to sell," she said.

She called on the state government to come to their aid so that they could go back to business.

"Our means of livelihood has been taken away and government needs to support us and save us from going into a state of joblessness; and also save our family from collapse."

She also appealed to wealthy individuals and well-meaning Nigerians to come to their aid in order for them to go back to business.