Traders at Aleshinloye Market, Ibadan, have been left devastated after a late-night fire on Tuesday destroyed their shops and goods worth millions of naira. Many of the victims are now calling for urgent government intervention to help them recover.
Mrs. Rukayat AbdulLateef, one of the affected traders, lamented that two of her shops stocked with goods worth over N50 million were completely razed. She had recently restocked with N5.4 million worth of items, most of which were yet to be sold.
“I borrowed money to buy these goods, and I haven’t even sold up to N1 million worth before this disaster. I don’t know where to start from,” she said in distress.
Another trader, Alhaja Toyeebat Bello, suffered an even greater loss, with all ten of her shops consumed by the fire. She estimated the damage to be over N70 million.
“I heard about the fire on Tuesday night but couldn’t come immediately. By the time I got to the market, everything was gone,” she said. She also expressed concerns about previous rumors that the government planned to demolish the market.
Mr. Joseph Abiodun, whose daughter Kudirat was among the victims, shared that she had been hospitalized due to the shock of the incident. He blamed the late response of the state fire service for the extensive damage.
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“The Oyo State Fire Service in the market couldn’t respond on time because they had no water or trucks. It was firefighters from private companies like Foodco and Sumal that first came to our rescue before the state fire service eventually joined in,” he said.
Sodiq Oloriade, a member of the market’s taskforce and also a victim, suspected an electrical surge caused the fire. He regretted that the lack of functioning firefighting equipment at the market’s fire station contributed to the scale of destruction.
Responding to the situation, the Chairman of the Oyo State Fire Services Agency, Dr. Moroof Akinwande, sympathized with the traders. He stated that the agency received the distress call around 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday and worked through the night to bring the fire under control by Wednesday morning.
Addressing concerns about the market’s fire station, Akinwande explained that fire trucks could not be stationed everywhere and that many of the agency’s trucks had been vandalized in past attacks on their personnel. He urged the public to remain calm in times of crisis.
Security agencies have since been deployed to maintain order and prevent any further disturbances at the market.
NAN
