A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo state and a former Special Adviser on Works and Transport to former Governor Abiola Ajimobi, Engineer Muftau Open Salawu has sympathised with the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III and the people of Oyo over the fire incident that engulfed the Akesan Market.
Open Salawu in a statement personally signed by him and made available to insideoyo.com on Tuesday urged the state governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde to come to the aide of the victims of the inferno.
Insideoyo.com recalls that the main market in Oyo town, Akesan Market was engulfed by fire in the wee hours of Sunday.
The Ogobomoso-born civil engineer also stated the need for Oyo state and the country at large to be more proactive in designing and planning markets to reduce or totally eradicate incidents like this.
The statement reads: “I Sympathize with people of Oyo and Baba Alafin in particular over the fire incident that razed Akesan Market. It is Saddling that people have to lose their scarce resources due to negligent behaviour and human error and the most worrying part is the similarity and the magnitude of the damaged in all the markets raze with fire throughout the country.
“We need to be more Proactive in designing and planning of our Markets to reduce or totally eradicate this kind of colossal loss to our people, materials that will prevent or delay the spread of fire should be used in building our markets and every part of market should be accessible for motorists for easy evacuation in an emergency situation.
“Governor Seyi Makinde Should come to the Aid of the shops owners at Akesan market that has lost all they’ve been working for in years and make provisions substantially to enable them start their life again. We pray God prevent such occurrence.”
