Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
A midnight fire incident has destroyed multimillion naira goods in at least 10 shops at Orita-Aperin in Ibadan, Oyo State capital.
The incident was said to have occurred at midnight on Friday and the cause of the inferno was yet to be ascertained at the time of filing this report.
A leader of the affected market, Mr. Abiodun Hammed, said: “The fire started by 12 midnight on Friday, and we immediately called on Oyo State Fire Service. Unfortunately, when they got here, the norsel of their truck did not function. So, we have to resolve to self-help by putting out the fire ourselves, or else, the loss would have been more than this.
“The shops that were affected include a shop of jewelry seller, food ingredients seller, shop of a provisions seller, red oil seller and herbs sellers among others. N5.6million is the worth of jewelry that got burnt, and most of the goods affected in the shops of the herbs seller cannot be replaced because they were ancient goods that cannot be seen in the market again.”
He appealed to Oyo State Government to assist the victims of the inferno, saying the huge loss would be too difficult for the victims to bear alone.
Meanwhile, Governor Seyi Makinde of the state has commiserated with the victims, saying he received the news of inferno with sadness, as he vowed to get to the roots of the sad incident.
The Press statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Taiwo Adisa, reads in part: “I condole with the market men and women who lost their valuables to the fire incident. It saddens me to hear this is happening at a time we are putting heads together to expand the economy of this state and put more money in the pockets of our people.
“It is particularly painful that the incident happened in the dead of the night when many of the shop owners were far asleep. I learnt that many shops that were recently stocked were affected. Please take heart as we take measures to forestall such occurrences.”